U.S. Health Agencies Ordered to Freeze Most External Communications

Written by Suzzane Burdick, Ph. D on January 29, 2025. Posted in Current News

One day after taking office, the Trump administration instructed federal health agencies — including the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — to pause external communications.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Acting Secretary Dorothy Fink told FDA, CDC and NIH leaders in a memo that an “immediate pause” had been ordered for many of the agencies’ public communications, until approved by a political appointment.

A U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for HHS secretary, is scheduled for Jan. 29. Kennedy is the founder and former chairman of Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

HHS’ Office of Public Affairs told The Defender, “HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health. This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization.”

CHD CEO Mary Holland said:

“This pause for communications from government health bodies is welcome. The priorities and communications of the incoming administration are starkly different than the past one. This step is likely to avoid unnecessary confusion and conflicting information in a time of changing policy.”

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., CHD’s chief scientific officer, said he thought the pause was “more than merited,” especially in light of the $590 million allocation made in the 11th hour of Biden’s administration to Moderna to develop a bird flu vaccine. Human cases of bird flu mostly consist of pink eye, he said.

“Who knows what other zingers might have been planned to thwart the new administration’s efforts to reform healthcare in the U.S.?” Hooker added.

Pause set to end Feb. 1

The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that the pause was for an “indeterminate length.” However, Fink’s memo — obtained on Wednesday by The Associated Press and NBC News — said the pause ends on Feb. 1.

The Post also reported that the pause was for “all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts.”

However, not all public communications have stopped, according to an HHS spokesperson. “There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.”

For instance, the FDA on Wednesday posted a drug safety notice — a warning about anaphylaxis associated with two drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis.

A CDC official who spoke with NBC News on the condition of anonymity because the official was unauthorized to speak publicly said the pause could affect several reports on bird flu that the agency planned to release today.

A former HHS official told the AP it’s not uncommon for a new administration to briefly pause agency communications for review.

Steven Grossman, a former HHS deputy assistant secretary for health who now consults for food and drug companies, in an email told the AP that the government’s executive branch is a hierarchy.

“Whether stated publicly or not,” Grossman said, “every new administration wants important commitments and positions to wait until new teams are in place and some semblance of hierarchy restored.”

‘The NIH needs reform’

The pause of federal health agency communications includes NIH study sections. NIH study section members are scientists who gather to decide which research proposals are to be granted NIH funding.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, noted today on his Substack that “panic unfolded” when the NIH announced the pause in study sections.

But Prasad praised the pause.“The NIH needs reform,” he said.

He cited research published in Nature that showed NIH study section members rarely author highly impactful studies. The research also showed that many authors of the most innovative and influential papers in the life sciences do not receive NIH funding.

“NIH seeks mediocre ideas that tread along established lines and not highly novel views,” Prasad said. “It does a bad job of funding people who do truly transformational work.”

The administration likely paused study sections to allow future NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to revisit priorities. That’s “completely normal and reasonable,” Prasad said.

Bhattacharya might decide to run a randomized trial to test whether the current study section structure is the best way to give out taxpayers’ money for research.

Prasad explained how this could be done:

“If you randomized grant giving to several strategies, and follow the portfolio of funded projects 5 or 10 years into the future, you could analyze measures of citation, publication, impact, patent and other downstream proxies.

“If, there are no differences between the current process, and less bureaucratic processes, you should choose the method that has the least overhead price.”

The government must use public dollars wisely, Prasad said. “That has absolutely not occurred in the past. A pause is necessary to tackle this intractable problem,” he added.

The NIH and FDA did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment by the deadline. The CDC directed questions to HHS.

See more here The Defender

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