CDC websites, datasets taken down as agency complies with Trump executive orders

Several US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites and datasets related to HIV, LGBTQ people, youth health behaviors and more have been removed after the agency was directed to comply with executive orders from President Donald Trump.

Several US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites and datasets related to HIV, LGBTQ people, youth health behaviors and more have been removed after the agency was directed to comply with executive orders from President Donald Trump. Trump’s orders require elimination of federal DEI programs and require the government to recognize two sexes: male and female. Guidance issued in a January 29 memo from the US Office of Personnel Management directs agency heads to remove “all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology” by 5 p.m. Friday. CNN has reached out to the White House about the memo. A senior health official told CNN that staff were told that consequences for noncompliance could be severe. Removal of the language will take time, the official added, so the sites and information were taken down in order to comply. “In the process, large swaths of data and science will be unavailable for an undetermined period,” the senior health official said. “Regardless of your comfort with the idea of trans people, you should be terrified that the government is purging truth and science to fit an ideology, because what’s next?” As of Friday afternoon, several CDC pages related to HIV were down, including the CDC’s HIV index page, testing page, datasets, national surveillance reports and causes pages.