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Doctors sue over Trump health agencies’ removal of online data
8:26 CAT | 06 Feb 2025
In file CoM
- Leaves ‘dangerous gap’ in health monitoring, group tells court
- Agencies removed websites per Trump order on ‘gender ideology
A group representing thousands of US doctors is suing the Trump administration over the sudden removal of public health data from government websites, arguing it creates a “dangerous gap” in information available to track disease and diagnose patients.
Doctors for America, a nonprofit membership organisation, filed the case Tuesday in Washington federal court, the latest in a series of legal challenges to the fast and dramatic changes that President Donald Trump and political appointees have made to federal agencies since he took office last month.
The doctors group is seeking to restore websites and data taken down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and US Department of Health and Human Services since the end of January. They’re arguing that the Office of Personnel Management lacked legal authority to order the removal of information and that the agencies violated the law governing how they are supposed to ensure access to public information.
“The removal of the webpages and datasets creates a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprives physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and takes away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients,” Doctors for America wrote in its complaint.
Spokespeople for the agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OPM had ordered the health data taken down in order to comply with a Trump executive order that would end government programs promoting what he called “gender ideology,” according to the complaint.
The doctors group said the data at issue includes information about mental health challenges facing young people, maps to identify communities at risk from natural disasters and monitoring HIV diagnoses and treatment, as well as guidance on contraception access and how to account for sex differences and diversity in clinical studies.
Doctors for America has been critical of Trump’s actions so far on public health and his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr.
The case is Doctors for America v. Office of Personnel Management, 25-cv-322, District Court for the District of Columbia.
Source: Bloomberg
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