Trump freezes health organs’ communication – NBC New York

Trump -Administration Freeze on Communication from US Health Agency leads to another disturbance: the sudden cancellation of scientific meetings.

The relocation covers a cut of health conditions from a presidential advisory council meeting on antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the National Institutes of Health Evaluations of Grant uses for cancer research and other diseases.

People who sign up for this antibiotic resistance meeting next week were met with a message on Thursday that the sudden cancellation is coming “as the new administration considers its plan for the management of federal policy and public communication.”

The new policy was a surprise as some of these NIH grants evaluation meetings were interrupted on Wednesday by officials who said they had to close the middle stream. Unclear is whether it will lift in time for federal researchers to present data at scientific conferences as a major HIV meeting in early March.

A statement from NIH said: “HHS has issued a break on mass communication and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical for maintaining health. This is a short break to allow the new team to create a process for review and prioritization. “

A prolonged delay could have ring effects as NIH is the country’s largest funding of medical research – important not only for drug discoveries but for jobs at universities and other laboratories.

HHS officials did not respond to requests for a comment on break, which was first reported by the Washington Post. Four federal health officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue confirmed the communication break to the AP.

A former HHS official said Wednesday that it is not unusual for incoming administrations to pause the agency’s communication for review. But typically, officials working on the president’s transition team have the process of issuing documents that run smoothly after the inauguration day.

“The executive branch is a hierarchy,” said Steven Grossman, who is now consulting for food and pharmaceutical companies, in an e -mail. “Whether stated in public or not, every new administration wants important obligations and attitudes to wait until new teams are in place and a certain sense of hierarchy is restored.”

A break is reasonable as a changing executive branch takes steps to be coordinated, Dr. Ali Khan, a former CDC outbreak investigator who is now dean of the University of Nebraska’s Public Health School.

“The only concern would be if this is a foreplay to go back to a prior approach to dimming the agencies around a political tale,” he added.

During his first period, President Donald Trump’s political appointed tried to get control Over the CDC’s MMWR Journal, which had published information about the Covid-19 pandemic that conflicted with the White House messages.

Fink wrote in his memo that some exceptions to communication would be made that affect “critical health, security, environmental, economic or nations’ security functions”, but that these would be subject to review. FDA Tuesday and Wednesday sent messages about Warning Letters sent to businesses and A notice of drug security.

A consumer lawyer group said the communication task could still threaten public security.

Americans rely on timely information from the CDC, FDA and other agencies to avoid food -borne illnesses and remain aware of other health problems, Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the public interest.

“When it comes to stopping outbreaks, counts every second,” Lurie said in a statement. “Confusion about the guard formulated GAG -Order is likely to lead to unnecessary delay in publishing urgent public alarms during active outbreaks.”

He was repeated by Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a university in southern California’s public health expert.

“Local health officials and doctors depend on the CDC to get disease updates, timely prevention, testing and treatment guidelines and outbreak information,” Klausner wrote in an E email. “Closing public health communication stops a basic function of public health. Imagine if the government turned off fire sirens or other warning systems. “

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AP Health Author Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed to this report.

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