Julie Steenhuysen and Nancy Lapid
Sun, February 2, 2025
A general view of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta
(Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is seeking to withdraw all papers involving its researchers that are being considered for publication by external scientific journals to allow for a review by the Trump administration, a federal official told Reuters.
The sweeping order came in an email from the CDC's chief science officer on Friday addressed to all division heads at the agency, the official, who has seen the email, told Reuters. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The review is aimed at removing language to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order saying the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female. Officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
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The withdrawal order, first reported by the Inside Medicine Substack, goes beyond an initial directive on Jan. 21 that federal health agencies pause their own public communications to allow for a review of those materials by Trump appointees.
Inside Medicine published a list of specific words targeted for removal in the communications review, including gender, transgender, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and nonbinary. The federal official said that such a list went out from CDC to its divisions.
The Friday withdrawal order involves all manuscripts written or co-written by CDC scientists. If CDC scientists are co-authors on a paper that originated outside of the agency, they are asked to take their names off the paper, the official said.
Public health experts said the removal of such terms threatens their ability to address all kinds of medical needs as they affect different groups, including those with HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
"We can't just erase or ignore certain populations when it comes to preventing, treating or researching infectious diseases such as HIV. I certainly hope this is not the intent of these orders," said Carl Schmid, an advocate and executive director of the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute.
Editors of scientific journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, questioned the legality of the move. For scientific papers that have been accepted by a journal but not yet published, "we have the copyright. The author can no longer make changes," said Dr. Alfredo Morabia, Editor in Chief of the AJPH.
For papers under review but not yet accepted by a journal, "a collective response is warranted from journal editors and publishers. There should be some common strategies," he said.
"It sounds incredible that this is compatible with the First Amendment. A constitutional right has been canceled," he said. "How can the government decide what words a journal can use to describe a scientific reality? That reality needs to be named."
"This is a travesty," Dr. Carlos Del Rio, chief section editor for HIV/AIDS for NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases, said in an email.
"CDC scientists publish every year important work that informs the field of public health. Stopping publications is never good," he said.
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On Friday, the CDC and other U.S. health agencies took down web pages on HIV statistics and a database tracking behaviors that increase health risks for youth, among other information, to comply with Trump administration orders on gender identity and diversity, raising concerns among physicians and patient advocates about censorship.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen and Nancy Lapid; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft)
CDC Orders Its Scientists To Withdraw New Papers To Hunt Out ‘Forbidden Terms': Reports
The sweeping order came in an email from the CDC's chief science officer on Friday addressed to all division heads at the agency, the official, who has seen the email, told Reuters. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The review is aimed at removing language to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order saying the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female. Officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
ADVERTISEMENT
The withdrawal order, first reported by the Inside Medicine Substack, goes beyond an initial directive on Jan. 21 that federal health agencies pause their own public communications to allow for a review of those materials by Trump appointees.
Inside Medicine published a list of specific words targeted for removal in the communications review, including gender, transgender, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and nonbinary. The federal official said that such a list went out from CDC to its divisions.
The Friday withdrawal order involves all manuscripts written or co-written by CDC scientists. If CDC scientists are co-authors on a paper that originated outside of the agency, they are asked to take their names off the paper, the official said.
Public health experts said the removal of such terms threatens their ability to address all kinds of medical needs as they affect different groups, including those with HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
"We can't just erase or ignore certain populations when it comes to preventing, treating or researching infectious diseases such as HIV. I certainly hope this is not the intent of these orders," said Carl Schmid, an advocate and executive director of the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute.
Editors of scientific journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, questioned the legality of the move. For scientific papers that have been accepted by a journal but not yet published, "we have the copyright. The author can no longer make changes," said Dr. Alfredo Morabia, Editor in Chief of the AJPH.
For papers under review but not yet accepted by a journal, "a collective response is warranted from journal editors and publishers. There should be some common strategies," he said.
"It sounds incredible that this is compatible with the First Amendment. A constitutional right has been canceled," he said. "How can the government decide what words a journal can use to describe a scientific reality? That reality needs to be named."
"This is a travesty," Dr. Carlos Del Rio, chief section editor for HIV/AIDS for NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases, said in an email.
"CDC scientists publish every year important work that informs the field of public health. Stopping publications is never good," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
On Friday, the CDC and other U.S. health agencies took down web pages on HIV statistics and a database tracking behaviors that increase health risks for youth, among other information, to comply with Trump administration orders on gender identity and diversity, raising concerns among physicians and patient advocates about censorship.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen and Nancy Lapid; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft)
CDC Orders Its Scientists To Withdraw New Papers To Hunt Out ‘Forbidden Terms': Reports
Nick Visser
Sun, February 2, 2025
HUFFFPOST
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered government scientists to withdraw or pause the publication of all papers set to appear in medical or scientific journals so the Trump administration can review the material for “forbidden terms” such as “gender,” “LGBT” or “pregnant person,” according to a shocking new report.
Inside Medicine, a Substack published by Dr. Jeremy Faust, obtained an email the CDC’s chief science officer sent to researchers instructing them to stop the advancement of manuscripts that are currently being revised or those that have already been accepted for publication. Researchers were told to remove any mention or reference to a list of terms.
That list includes “gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,” Inside Medicine, citing the email, reported.
Reuters later confirmed the reports.
The order applies to any paper authored or co-authored by a CDC scientist. Reuters added that if any scientists are co-authors on a paper with outside researchers, they must remove their names from the manuscripts.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered government scientists to withdraw or pause the publication of all papers set to appear in medical or scientific journals so the Trump administration can review the material for “forbidden terms” such as “gender,” “LGBT” or “pregnant person,” according to a shocking new report.
Inside Medicine, a Substack published by Dr. Jeremy Faust, obtained an email the CDC’s chief science officer sent to researchers instructing them to stop the advancement of manuscripts that are currently being revised or those that have already been accepted for publication. Researchers were told to remove any mention or reference to a list of terms.
That list includes “gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female,” Inside Medicine, citing the email, reported.
Reuters later confirmed the reports.
The order applies to any paper authored or co-authored by a CDC scientist. Reuters added that if any scientists are co-authors on a paper with outside researchers, they must remove their names from the manuscripts.
The CDC has already moved to comply with orders from the Trump administration. The agency removed or edited references to trans people and gender identify from its website on Friday after a deadline to do so was imposed by the Office of Personnel Management. The office recently ordered an end to all agency programs “that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology” following an executive order signed by Trump on the day of his inauguration.
Inside Medicine noted that many scientific manuscripts could be affected by the order as terms like “gender” are often used to describe simple demographic information. Faust added that there was just one political appointee serving in the entirety of the CDC, acting Director Susan Monarez.
It’s unclear if anyone besides her would have the authority to approve the publication of any paper that is flagged as being violation of the recent order.
“How can one person vet all of this?” an unnamed official told Inside Medicine
CDC deletes info on HIV, LGBTQ care from website to comply with Trump’s attack on diversity
Clarissa-Jan Lim
Sat, February 1, 2025
Public health information related to LGBTQ care and to HIV was scrubbed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website Friday as the agency seeks to comply with President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders.
The CDC’s main HIV page was still accessible as of Saturday afternoon, although a disclaimer at the top states that the agency’s website “is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” Pages that previously contained HIV data — including resources for health care providers, information on racial disparities and data on transgender people, gay and bisexual men — have been removed and remain unavailable as of this writing.
The agency also took down its pages on LGBTQ care, including those containing data about suicide rates among LGBTQ youth. A page with information on food safety for pregnant people was also removed.
CDC employees were informed in a memo this week that they are barred from promoting “gender ideology” and to begin removing all public-facing media that might “inculcate or promote” such concepts by Friday afternoon. The term “gender ideology” is one that the advocacy organization GLAAD calls “a malicious rhetorical construct that falsely asserts that LGBTQ — notably trans — people are an ideological movement rather than an intrinsic identity.”
One government staffer told NBC News that CDC officials struggled with implementing the policy and “began pulling down numerous HIV-related webpages — regardless of whether it included gender — rushing to meet the deadline.”
It’s unclear whether the CDC might restore the webpages at a later date, and if so, how the information might be presented differently.
In his first week in office, Trump signed executive orders, essentially, to prohibit the government from recognizing transgender people and to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies in federal agencies. The Defense Intelligence Agency, which is part of the Pentagon, announced on Friday that all activities and events related to “special observances,” such as Black History Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, National American Indian Heritage Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day, will be halted to comply with Trump’s anti-diversity order.
When asked by a reporter on Friday about government websites being scrubbed of information even tangentially related to race or gender, Trump pleaded ignorance but said it “doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me.”
“DEI would’ve ruined our country and now it’s dead ... So if they want to scrub the websites, that’s OK with me.” Trump said, adding that the “real leaders” in the military are “very happy about it.”
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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