Removal of online health resources ‘dangerous’ to public health, experts say
Key takeaways:
- A Trump administration effort targeting “gender ideology” led to the removal of pages from government websites.
- The CDC was among the agencies that began removing pages related to HIV, STIs and more.
The CDC’s removal of online resources related to HIV, STIs and other health topics following a Trump administration order to scrub references related to “gender ideology” has alarmed experts, who say it threatens public health.
Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, issued a memo on Jan. 29 to all federal departments and agencies with guidance to comply with President Donald J. Trump’s executive order titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
“In light of [the order], each agency should take prompt actions to end all agency programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology,” Ezell wrote.
In response, the CDC has pulled pages containing data, guidelines and resources for a swath of health topics, especially those related to infections that can be spread through sexual contact, such as HIV. In many cases, the pages referenced transgender men and women.
CDC pages related to Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. — an initiative launched by Trump in his first term — were among those taken down. Those pages and others could still be found on the Internet Archive.
“The removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies is deeply concerning and creates a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks,” Infectious Diseases Society of America President Tina Tan, MD, FIDA, FPIDS, FAAP, and HIV Medicine Association President Colleen Kelley, MD, MPH, FIDSA, said in a statement.
“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,” they said.
The New York Times reported that, as of Sunday, more than 8,000 pages had been removed from government websites — roughly 3,000 of them from the CDC website. As of Monday note at the top of the agency’s website said, “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s executive orders.”
Thousands of web pages have also been removed by the Census Bureau, Office of Justice Programs, Department of Justice, FDA, IRS and Department of Veterans Affairs, among other agencies and departments, according to the Times. The website for Target.HIV.org, which is part of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, was completely down.
The memo included 11 tasks that agencies were required comply with by 5 p.m. on Jan. 31. It instructed the removal of “all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology,” and to “ensure that all applicable agency policies and documents, including forms, use the term ‘sex’ and not ‘gender.’”
Additionally, the memo told agencies to terminate programs and grants related to “gender ideology,” review email systems and turn off features that prompt users for their pronouns, cancel gender-related trainings, cancel employee resource groups that include “gender ideology” and to “ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls or females (or for men, boys or males) are designated by biological sex and not gender identity.”
The memo gave a deadline of Feb. 7 to report to the Office of Personnel Management that the guidance has been implemented.
References:
- Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/. Published Jan. 20, 2025. Accessed Feb. 3, 2025.
- Removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related CDC webpages creates dangerous gaps in scientific information. https://www.idsociety.org/news--publications-new/articles/2025/removal-of-hiv--and-lgbtq-related-cdc-webpages-creates-dangerous-gaps-in-scientific-information/. Published Jan. 31, 2025. Accessed Feb. 3, 2025.
- Singer E. Thousands of U.S. government web pages have been taken down since Friday. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/upshot/trump-government-websites-missing-pages.html. Published Feb. 2, 2025. Accessed Feb. 3, 2025.
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Initial guidance regarding President Trump’s executive order Defending Women. https://www.opm.gov/media/yvlh1r3i/opm-memo-initial-guidance-regarding-trump-executive-order-defending-women-1-29-2025-final.pdf. Published Jan. 29, 2025. Accessed Feb. 3, 2025.
Perspective
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Hiding information about topics one considers frightening is understandable. A really old expression says it: Ignorance is bliss. Trouble arises, though, when what one doesn’t know can actually hurt. It may be frightening to be told there are icebergs near your cruise ship, but probably better to accept that information so disaster can be avoided.
In the early AIDS epidemic, many men who had sex with other men were not allowed to acknowledge that, or that they may have been infected by HIV, only to transmit the virus to female partners and then to infants. Being told a family member has active tuberculosis is concerning, but if that fact is hidden, the rest of the family is put at risk.
Seeing “page not found” when searching the CDC web site for HIV data is truly chilling, and impossible to understand. Closing one’s eyes in battle is a very ineffective strategy for survival.
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