Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday that multiple webpages have been taken down in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders on gender ideology and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
A review of the websites by The Epoch Times shows that between Jan. 31 and Feb. 4, a multitude of CDC webpages were removed and remain down as of Feb. 4.
“All changes to the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) website and HHS division websites are in accordance with President Trump’s January 20 Executive Orders, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, and Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” the CDC spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
“The Office of Personnel Management has provided initial guidance on both executive orders and HHS and divisions are acting accordingly to execute.”
That comment came in response to a question about several CDC webpages that were offline as of Tuesday.
These include Health Disparities Among LQBTQ Youth; Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of Vaccine for Mpox Prevention; Fast Facts: HIV and Transgender People; pages for HIV data; the page for the U.S. global HIV program called PEPFAR, and others.
A page that was titled “Safer Food Choices for Pregnant People“ was renamed ”Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women.” When the previous version is accessed, the page displays a message saying it moved to the one referencing women.
An analysis from the health nonprofit KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, noted that some CDC webpages were taken down but were put back online with a message saying the webpage was being changed.
“CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders,” says the message at the top of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention website.
Several other CDC pages, including one with demographic and health surveys, also displayed that message, as did the agency’s front page on Tuesday.
The CDC’s official public portal for health data was taken down entirely on Jan. 31 but went back up over the weekend with the message about website modifications. The agency’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey data was restored, too, but with at least one of the gender columns missing and its data documentation removed.
Some of the sites came back online on Monday, other data analysts said. However, it’s not clear exactly what was removed or changed.
“You go looking for something and it’s just not there,” said Amy O’Hara, a Georgetown University researcher who is president of the Association of Public Data Users. The website changes sparked “a mad scramble right now” to grab copies of whatever federal data was posted before, O’Hara said.
Researchers say datasets and summaries were affected, as were codebooks that explain different variables. There were changes to published research that used affected datasets and redactions to lists of publications about certain topics, O'Hara said.
Paul Schroeder, executive director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, said people looking for data may have to resort to suing for access or submitting Freedom of Information Act requests.
“The removal of several public datasets from agency websites goes against everything the statistical agencies stand for and were intended for,” Schroeder said on Monday. “Public data users are being left in the dark about what is going on.”
In the wake of Trump’s signing the executive orders, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a memorandum on Jan. 24 stipulating that agency heads will terminate DEI offices and positions within 60 days.
Another executive order specifically directed the CDC to stop working with the World Health Organization, and HHS placed a pause on posts and reports issued by both the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), subjecting them to review first.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.