Trump Administration Temporarily Mutes Federal Health Officials

Scientific meetings were canceled, and research data on the bird flu outbreak was delayed, amid confusion over the directive.

The Trump administration, moving quickly to clamp down on health and science agencies, has canceled a string of scientific meetings and instructed federal health officials to refrain from all public communications, including upcoming reports focused on the nation’s escalating bird flu crisis.

Experts who serve on outside advisory panels on a range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to deafness, received emails on Wednesday telling them their meetings had been canceled.

The cancellations followed a directive issued on Tuesday by the acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, who prohibited the public release of any public communication until it had been reviewed by a presidential appointee or designee, according to federal officials and an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times.

The directive enjoins the public release of “regulations, guidance documents, and other public documents and communications,” including any “notice,” “grant announcement,” news releases, speaking engagements or official correspondence with public officials, until they have received approval.

The new stricture applies to messages to email groups and to social media posts, and included a ban on announcements to 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 Some notices sent by the Biden administration in its final week were quickly withdrawn.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 communications crackdown sent a chill through employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the broader scientific community. The directive was first reported by The Washington Post.