CDC resumes publishing top scientific journal
Key takeaways:
- The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report had not been published since Jan. 16.
- The first issue back contained two wildfire-related studies. Other reports “remain in the pipeline,” the CDC said.
The CDC on Thursday published its famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for the first time since the Trump administration ordered the nation’s various health agencies to freeze public communications.
The journal, commonly called MMWR, went unpublished — seemingly for the first time ever — in each of the last 2 weeks following the order issued by HHS.
Issues of MMWR usually contain four or more items, including epidemiologic studies, outbreak reports or new vaccine recommendations. The two MMWR articles that appeared online Thursday were both a type of dispatch known as “Notes from the Field” — short reports related to current events that often appear as the third or fourth article in an issue. Both reports were about recent wildfires.
Reports on the U.S. bird flu outbreak that were expected to be published in the Jan. 23 issue have not yet appeared online but are “still in the pipeline,” a CDC spokesperson told Healio.
Although the HHS communications pause has not been fully lifted, “There are several types of external communications that are no longer subject to the pause,” a CDC spokesperson told Healio this week. The spokesperson said the administration has increased staff levels at HHS in advance of the Senate confirming a new health secretary.
“HHS has approved numerous communications related to critical health and safety needs and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs is now more flexible with communications as HHS and its divisions work to align with President Trump’s agenda.”
In addition to the communications pause, the CDC website has also been subject to an executive order targeting “gender ideology,” which has led to the removal of thousands of pages containing data, guidelines and resources for a wide swath of health topics, including HIV/AIDS, mpox, STIs and some vaccines, The New York Times reported.
One of the reports published Thursday in MMWR focused on increased PFAS levels among first responders to the Maui wildfires in September 2023. According to the researchers, concentrations of PFAS chemicals — which some firefighting foams contain and are associated with cancer — were higher among firefighters 1 month after the fires than they were among other responder groups.
The second study analyzed ED use among people in Los Angeles County during the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon wildfires in January. According to the researchers, all-cause ED encounters decreased by 9%, whereas there was an eightfold increase in the rate of “wildfire-associated” ED encounters. Additionally, the study revealed no differences in the average rate of cardiorespiratory-related ED encounters.
References:
- Beaucham CC, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2025;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7403a1.
- Kajita E, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2025;doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7403a2.
- 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. 6, 2025.
Perspective
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Although I’m encouraged that the MMWR is being published again, I’m surprised and concerned that it doesn’t contain any reports on bird flu spreading in animals and people, the new strain of mpox spreading or other emerging health threats. I hope the new administration will see the value in CDC publishing information on health threats every week, without political interference.
I was also surprised not to see standard features of the MMWR, such as QuickStats, which is an interesting data point on an important and often overlooked trend in U.S. health.
MMWR is the CDC’s voice. If it is constrained or directed to say or not say certain things for political reasons, then trust in public health will be further undermined and we will be less able to find and stop health threats.
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