Statement from leading physician groups on removal of data and guidance from federal websites

“The removal of datasets and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) websites to comply with the President’s recent executive order puts the health and wellbeing of patients at risk and makes it more difficult for physicians to provide quality care.

The research, data and guidance on these webpages are widely used by the more than 600,000 physicians our organizations represent. Removal hamstrings our ability to provide factual, accurate information to the millions of patients our members serve. These resources are not just academic references—they are vital for real-time clinical decision-making in hospitals, clinics and emergency departments across the country.

Restricting access to these webpages leaves physicians, scientists and other members of the health care community without up-to-date recommendations on managing infectious diseases, public health threats, essential preventive care and chronic conditions.

Restoring these guidance pages is a public health imperative. At a time when emerging infectious diseases, antibiotic-resistant infections and evolving treatment protocols require rapid dissemination of knowledge, the removal of these resources places undue burdens on physicians and endangers patients.

We urge Congress to ensure that the CDC, NIH and other public health agencies have the resources and ability to provide physicians and the public with the information they need to support the health and mental health of every person seeking health care in the U.S. Further, it is critically important that federal health agency officials again be able to communicate freely with the public, as the ongoing communications freeze is exacerbating the challenges posed by removal of research, data and guidance pages from federal websites.”