Several pages on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website remain offline today amid a move by the Trump administration to remove all language related to gender identity and LGBTQ issues from government communications.
According to social media posts from researchers and journalists, pages on the CDC website started to disappear late last week, with searches producing the message "The page you're looking for was not found." Among the many pages that remain down are Health Disparities Among LQBTQ Youth, Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of Vaccine for Mpox Prevention, and Fast Facts: HIV and Transgender People.
Pages containing data from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System are also unavailable, as is the Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication page. A page containing vaccine recommendations and guidelines from the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was also unavailable for a time late last week but is now back online.
The moves are linked to an executive order issued by the Trump administration that stated the federal government will only recognize an individual's "immutable biological classification" as either male or female and that gender identity cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex. The order calls for all agencies to "remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages."
A subsequent memo from the Office of Personnel Management called on the heads and acting heads of departments and agencies to "Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology" by 5pm, January 31.
Over the weekend, a note was added to the CDC website that states, "CDC's website is being modified to comply with President Trump's Executive Orders."
Scientists push back
In a joint statement, the heads of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association said the removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources from the CDC's website "is deeply concerning and creates a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks."
"Access to this information is crucial for infectious diseases and HIV health care professionals who care for people with HIV and members of the LGBTQ community and is critical to efforts to end the HIV epidemic," said IDSA President Tina Tan, MD, and HIVMA Chair Colleen Kelley, MD, MPH.
"This is especially important as diseases such as HIV, mpox, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses threaten public health and impact the entire population. Timely and accurate information from the CDC guides clinical practice and policies, which are essential for controlling infections and safeguarding health."
The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, in a message shared in an email and on social media, said it joins IDSA in calling for transparency and the protection of science-driven public health policies.
"The removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies takes us further away from making all America healthy," the organization said. "Removing this guidance creates a critical gap in scientific information and puts these patients at risk as it relates to infection prevention and appropriate antibiotic use."
Mass retraction of papers submitted to journals
In related news, Jeremy Faust, MD, reported in his Inside Medicine newsletter on Substack that the CDC has instructed its scientists to retract or pause the publication of any research manuscript being considered by any medical or scientific journal.
According to a CDC email reviewed by Faust, the order was to ensure that those manuscripts do not include now-forbidden terms, such as "gender, transgender, pregnant person or pregnant people, LGBTQ, transsexual, nonbinary, assigned male or female at birth, and biologically male or biologically female."
Faust reports the order applies to previously submitted manuscripts under consideration and those accepted but not yet published.
Meanwhile, it's unclear if the pause on communications from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and all agencies within the department, including the CDC, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health, remains in effect. A January 21 memo from HHS Acting Secretary Dorothy Fink, MD, stated the pause was through February 1.
Among the many publications affected by the pause is the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which includes case reports on infectious disease outbreaks and epidemiologic studies. Traditionally published weekly, MMWR has not been issued for the past 2 weeks.
Also affected are the CDC Health Alert Network (HAN) advisories, which inform clinicians and public health officials about urgent public health issues. The last HAN advisory was posted on January 16.
In response to an email from CIDRAP News asking whether the pause was still in effect, an HHS spokesperson said the agency has approved numerous communications related to critical health and safety needs and "will continue to do so."
"There are several types of external communications that are no longer subject to the pause," said Andrew Nixon, HHS director of communications. "All HHS divisions have been given clear guidance on how to seek approval for any other type of mass communication."
Editor's note: This story was updated on February 4 with comments from an HHS spokesperson.
