Trump’s health department cancels meetings and pauses communications | Trump administration

Trump administration appointees assert control over the massive US federal health department after the president’s inauguration this week – Public communications stopped And suddenly Cancellation of scientific meetings.

While a pause in communications is not entirely abnormal as new administrations get back on their feet, the orders come at a time when scientists and the American public are deeply concerned. health Workers.

Trump allies He called for a major restructuring scientific agencies during his campaign; Trump has nominated one of the world The most important vaccine skeptics, Robert F. Kennedy Jrto lead the Department of Health, and the previous Trump administration had a track record of pushing for this Oversight scholars.

“[The Department of Health and Human Services] “HHS has issued a temporary moratorium on public communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to the preservation of health,” an NIH spokesperson said. Statistics 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 departments of the Department of Health and Human Services believe are critically important, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Acting Health Secretary Dorothy Fink told staff that a “pause” has been ordered on regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website postings until communications are approved by a political appointee, according to a report from the Health Department. Association Press.

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services oversee the world’s largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research at the National Institutes of Health, the gold standard scientific review agency for drugs at the Food and Drug Administration, the world’s premier public health agency at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ). and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which provides or regulates health insurance for about 136 million U.S. residents.

The department controls a budget of about $1.8 trillion that helps keep Americans safe and makes the United States a world leader in scientific research.

The new administration has also broken previous precedent by failing to appoint an acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He left a leadership vacuum The agency is charged with keeping Americans safe from infectious disease outbreaks, CBS reported.

In just one example of a notable lack of scientific communication, the CDC failed to send out the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, known in scientific and medical circles as the MMWR. The report details outbreaks and investigations by agency scientists, and is a resource for national infectious disease managers.

Along with the lack of communication, scientific meetings within the National Institutes of Health have also been cancelled. These meetings are required by law to issue grant funding for research laboratories across the country, and cancellations may result in delays, as grant funding consultants often have busy schedules. The National Institutes of Health is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research, with a budget of about $47 billion.

The new administration also canceled meetings of the Vaccine Advisory Committee and the Antibiotic Resistance Committee. According to statistics.

Along with the communications shutdown, the Senate is also considering Trump’s nominees for Cabinet positions, with potentially far-reaching health implications.

Trump’s nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell T. Vought, has expressed support for work requirements in Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans that covers 69 million people (including about 40 million children).

Traditionally, the program did not include work requirements, which… Research has shown They do not increase employment but succeed in excluding people from social safety net programs because of burdensome paperwork.

“Not only Medicaid, but other programs, are informed to be able to encourage people back into the workforce, increase labor force participation, and give people back the dignity of work,” he told members of the Senate Budget Committee. the New York Times.

In the first Trump administration, officials approved programs in 13 states to establish work requirements — programs that were largely rolled back by the Biden administration. The Trump administration then described the work requirements as a way to increase “Community participation“.