Judge orders CDC and FDA to restore webpages removed after Trump order
A federal judge has ordered that the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration restore several of the webpages that they took down following Donald Trump's executive order attacking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
On Tuesday, US district judge John Bates gave the health agencies until midnight to reinstate public medical information that had been scrubbed from the websites.
The orders came after the group Doctors of America said the removal of webpages at the CDC was detrimental to patient care because doctors rely on such pages for information about treating different conditions. Bates ordered the webpages to be restored to their previous condition as of 30 January.
The judge wrote that 'it bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants' actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare'.
Citing declarations from two doctors filed in the case, Bates said if 'those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions'.
'The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health,' he added.
President Trump signed several controversial executive orders on his first in office, including orders that stated that the US recognizes only two sexes, male and female. He directed all federal agencies to remove 'all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology'.
Following the orders, the CDC and FDA took down numerous webpages, including research, datasets and recommendations on how physicians should treat sexually transmitted infections, as well as immunization guidance for adults.
Trump's moves resulted in some webpages having their wording altered to fit the new admiration's orders, but certain datasets, such as from the CDC's youth risk behavior surveillance system (YRBSS), were removed entirely, according to reporting from CBS News.
Visiting the CDC website will currently show a banner that says the website 'is being modified to comply with President Trump's executive orders'.
Zachary Shelley, a lawyer for the advocacy group Public Citizen, which represented the group of 27,000 doctors and medical trainees, told USA Today that 'there is immense harm to the public' and 'there is increased risk of disease outbreak' if the webpages are not restored.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
16 hours ago
- The Independent
How to actually get a good night's sleep
Getting a good night of shut eye can often seem like a Herculean task. Smartphones provide an enticing distraction — whether you're laughing at a funny YouTube video or texting with friends — and the noise and light pollution can interrupt our body clocks. But, there's no one secret to perfect sleep, and everyone is different. Some people can fall asleep in an instant (even if that seems unfair), while others stare at the ceiling for hours. 'As a nation we are not getting enough sleep,' Dr. Wayne Giles, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Population Health, previously cautioned. But, what is enough, why is it important, and are there rules we can follow to get it? What is a good night's sleep? People need continuous hours of restful sleep. The American Heart Association says you want multiple cycles of all five stages of sleep, advancing into deep sleep. The two main stages of sleep are rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM. REM sleep is thought to aid in the development of the central nervous system and protect against dementia. The amount of sleep each person needs will vary and changes as we age, but adults should get between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. Otherwise, you will feel tired throughout the week. About a third of U.S. adults don't get enough sleep and many older adults don't sleep well. Sleep disorders are common, but sleep can also be disrupted by chronic health conditions. 'Older adults have different sleep patterns. They tend to sleep more lightly and may wake earlier in the morning,' Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Michelle Drerup said. 'But you still need the same amount of sleep over 24 hours, so if you're sleeping less at night, you might need a nap during the day.' Why do we need it? A good night's sleep can impact memory, adaptability, and brain function. Without enough sleep, symptoms of depression, seizures, high blood pressure, and migraines can worsen. Peoples' immunity is compromised. A lack of sleep can raise our propensity for obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, according to Harvard Medical School. People who don't get enough are also at an increased risk of falls or accidents. Even just one night without sleep can create a prediabetic state in an otherwise healthy person, according to Johns Hopkins University. Three nights without sleep can hurt your heart, a recent study found. 'Sleep influences many aspects of health, including mood, cardiovascular health, metabolic health, and increasingly we recognize it is important for brain health,' Dr. Mark Wu, a professor of neurology, medicine, and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, told The Independent. 'At Hopkins, for example, we have been investigating the connection between sleep and Alzheimer's disease, and the data suggest that poor quality and insufficient sleep can be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.' What can we do to get it? Many experts recommend similar steps — and like all good advice, the hard part is following it consistently. Getting exercise in the morning can help maintain your body's clock. Sticking to a schedule and pre-sleep routine can reinforce your body's sleep-wake cycle, according to Mayo Clinic. If you have trouble sleeping one night, try not to sleep later or nap the next day. You will sleep better that night. Federal health officials also advise people keep their bedroom quiet and cool, and turn off their electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Bright lights can disrupt your body's natural sleep-wake functions, also known as your circadian rhythm. Dr. Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at U.C. Berkeley, said in an email shared with The Independent that the room should be at around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Reduce caffeine after lunch and don't drink before bed. Nicotine is also a negative, Wu said. 'Most people can get good sleep, but there are many factors that can influence sleep, like pain, mood disorders like anxiety, depression, stress,' he explained.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Obama's doctor makes candid confession about Biden's mental decline while in office
The former White House physician to President Barack Obama has broken his silence, candidly admitting that President Joe Biden should have undergone rigorous cognitive testing throughout all four years of his presidency. Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as Obama's doctor from 2009 to 2013, didn't mince words warning that Biden should have been subjected to extensive annual neurocognitive exams and that the results should be made public. 'My position is that a 78-year-old candidate, Trump at the time, an 82-year-old president [Biden], would both benefit from neurocognitive testing,' Kuhlman stated, noting how age-related decline is inevitable. 'Any politician over the age of 70 has normal age-related cognitive decline.' Kuhlman, the author of Transforming Presidential Healthcare, has been making these recommendations for nearly a year - notably publishing them in a New York Times op-ed on the very day Biden bowed out of the 2024 race. Despite multiple detailed physicals during Biden's time in office, Kuhlman pointed out that none included neurocognitive assessments like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) - a basic test famously taken and 'aced' by President Trump. 'I have no doubt that President Trump aced it,' Kuhlman remarked. Yet Biden's evaluations, spanning five to six single-spaced pages and referencing 10 to 20 specialists, conspicuously omitted any serious cognitive screening. Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor who also treated Biden during his vice presidency never subjected him to a formal cognitive battery or even the routine MoCA test. Such an omission has become more glaring given the president's visible struggles, culminating in his disastrous debate performance in June 2024 that effectively ended his reelection bid. 'Sometimes those closest to the tree miss the forest,' Kuhlman said to the New York Post acknowledging his respect for O'Connor's medical judgment but hinting at blind spots that may have endangered the presidency itself. Kuhlman also emphasized that simple cognitive screens like the MoCA are not enough to fully assess deeper mental deterioration. True evaluation requires extensive testing for memory, reasoning, processing speed, and spatial visualization. Such faculties begin to decline starting around age 60. The White House had long insisted Biden was 'fit for duty,' yet Kuhlman's remarks cast fresh doubts on those assurances. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed aside concerns at a February 2024 briefing declaring, 'The president doesn't need a cognitive test. He passes a cognitive test every day.' But the former presidential physician's comments now suggest that claim was complacent. Adding fuel to the fire, White House logs revealed Biden met with Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson's specialist from Walter Reed, as part of his annual physical in January 2024. While O'Connor insisted the meeting was routine, other medical professionals weren't convinced. 'If somebody turns up a report that Kevin Cannard said he has Parkinson's then that's a completely different story,' Kuhlman said. He did, however, express trust in Cannard's evaluation based on their long-standing professional history. In the past, critics pointed to Biden's stiff gait, slow movement, and shuffling walk as signs of something deeper. 'I could've diagnosed him from across the Mall,' neurologist Dr. Tom Pitts bluntly told NBC in July 2024. In one final blow, Special Counsel Robert Hur's bombshell decision not to indict Biden over his handling of classified documents cited that a jury would likely view the president as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.' The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is now turning up the heat. Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) has subpoenaed O'Connor to testify under oath on June 27 about Biden's mental fitness. In a pointed letter, Comer raised concerns about O'Connor's 'financial relationship with the Biden family' and suggested there may have been a cover-up to conceal the president's cognitive decline from the American public. Jean-Pierre who has since left the Democratic Party and is preparing to release a scathing tell-all book about the 'broken' Biden administration is also expected to testify. Last month, a new book titled Original Sin by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson hit the shelves with allegations of a vast cover-up of Biden's final years in office. According to the book's authors, O'Connor resisted administering a cognitive test during Biden's last two years. Days before the book's released Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer with the cells having spread to the bone. Kuhlman emphasized that cancer testing protocols should have been maintained after 2014, but hinted that Biden may have been let down even in that regard. 'I hope that Kevin O'Connor had that conversation every year with his patient, Joe Biden, and documented that in the medical record,' he said. 'If he did the PSA and chose not to release it, I don't agree with that.'
NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
At least 1.7 million eggs recalled as CDC and FDA investigate multistate salmonella outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to at least 1.7 million eggs, according to a news release issued on Saturday. The brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs were distributed by the August Egg Company from Feb. 3 through May 15 to retailers in nine states — California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana and Wyoming, per the FDA. In an announcement issued Friday, the Hilmar, California-based distribution company recalled 1.7 million eggs, which have sell-by dates ranging from March 4 to June 19 and were sold at retailers including Walmart and Safeway, as well as under many different brands that can be seen here. So far, the outbreak has sickened 79 people in New Jersey, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, Arizona, Washington state and California, the CDC said. At least 21 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported. 'This outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses, and the true number of sick people is likely much higher than the number reported,' the CDC said. 'This is because many people recover without medical care and are not tested for Salmonella.' Salmonella is a type of bacteria that can make people sick if they consume contaminated food and water, or touch animals, their fecal matter or the areas they live in, according to the CDC. It is 'a leading cause of food-borne illness, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States and worldwide,' causing about 1.35 million infections in the U.S. every year. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps and can start six hours to six days after consumption of the bacteria. Children under five, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems can become seriously ill as a result of contracting salmonella. The CDC is advising anyone who has the recalled eggs in their home to throw them away or return them to the retailer that sold them. Businesses with recalled eggs should not sell or serve them, and should sanitize any item or surface that came into contact with the eggs. The August Egg Company said it began taking its eggs to an 'egg-breaking facility' to pasteurize them and kill pathogens after learning about the salmonella concern. 'August Egg Company's internal food safety team also is conducting its own stringent review to identify what measures can be established to prevent this situation from recurring,' the company said in a statement. 'We are committed to addressing this matter fully and to implementing all necessary corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again.' This isn't the only salmonella outbreak the U.S. is currently grappling with. Last month, the FDA announced a recall of cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales due to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 45 people and hospitalized 16 across 18 states. The FDA's investigation into the cucumbers is ongoing.
