The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the U.S.’s national public health agency, a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is a hub for research and data regarding important topics such as sexual violence, HIV, pregnancy and gender. Under President Donald Trump’s executive orders, an ominous yellow banner lines the top of the homepage, reading, “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”
As one of President Trump’s more immediate day one promises, two executive orders were signed into law regarding censorship of certain words and phrases in federal matters. Any references to transgender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are now banned, causing crucial research and data to be dismantled. These executive orders and their effects on public health institutions raises several alarms regarding accountability, transparency and the purpose of the CDC.
In one case, the web page titled, “Intimate Partner Violence Research Priorities” was completely removed, resulting in an error message after clicking on it. Although there may have been inclusive references to gender, relationships and transgender individuals – and there is now no way to know – this page was likely also taken down due to politicization of the subject
As a government-funded institution, there are underlying reasons for compliance. However, removing information regarding sexual violence in any capacity completely undermines the CDC’s credibility as an information source, which is likely one of Trump’s motives.
According to Kera News, CDC employees were ordered to retract any research that uses the terms, “‘gender,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘pregnant person,’ ‘LGBT,’ ‘non-binary,’ ‘assigned male at birth,’ ‘assigned female at birth,’ and several others.” This order began to affect research involving HIV, LGBTQIA+ people and youth health.
One web page, titled “Preventing HIV” was also completely removed, along with countless others.
According to its website, the purpose of the CDC is, “To make science and data easier for broad audiences to interpret, CDC is translating science into practical, easy to understand policy by clarifying and presenting scientific language so that anyone can understand it and standardizing guideline development across the agency.”
This highlights the direct contradictory nature of the removal of certain pages, words and phrases from the website, though the CDC is not to blame. Though it should operate independently, concerns regarding executive orders have not been top-of-mind until Trump’s presidency. Data and research provided by the CDC is crucial for everyone, from journalists to doctors, to make informed decisions and provide accurate information.
Above all, the removal of this information hurts survivors. Nobody should witness their experiences being censored on what should be a trusted data source by the highest public official. Trump’s executive orders are having real-time effects that were once unimaginable – and it will likely continue.
Layne Rey is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Let Layne know by tweeting her @laynerey12.
