Attack on Science #1 – Communication Restricted at Federal Agencies

What happened: The Trump administration is restricting scientific communication at federal agencies.

Why this matters: Restricting agency communication can prevent scientific information from reaching the public. This information can include health advisories, scientific reports, or critical scientific information delivered via agency social media channels. When the public does not have access to vital scientific information, it risks public health.

The Details

One of the first attacks on science I recorded under the Trump administration back in 2017 was a communications blackout across several federal agencies. Why should 2025 be any different? The past truly is prologue.

News broke this morning that the Trump administration ordered communications restrictions at Health and Human Services (HHS) and its subagencies (i.e., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)). These agencies were instructed to pause all external communications.

The Washington Post reported that “The pause on communications includes scientific reports issued by the CDC, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR); advisories sent out to clinicians on CDC’s health alert network about public health incidents; data updates to the CDC website; and public health data releases from the National Center for Health Statistics, which tracks myriad health trends, including drug overdose deaths.”

The pause on the MMWR reports is significant because the CDC was set to issue these reports this week regarding the H5N1 avian influenza virus outbreak. As mentioned in prior SciLight posts, the CDC is carefully monitoring the H5N1 avian influenza, which has the potential to spread to humans.

While new administrations generally seek to quickly take grasp of public affairs operations, the Trump administration seems to be targeting particular agencies. Some employees expressed that they were wary of the communications restrictions because of the prior Trump administration’s attempts to control health agencies communication on COVID-19. In 2017, the Trump administration also restricted communications at certain agencies, mostly targeting agencies in charge of environmental regulations.

SciLight has been informed that a similar restriction is in place at the Department of Transportation (DOT) from an employee who has asked to remain anonymous. SciLight has also received other intel that other federal agencies have received similar communication restrictions memos, although we have yet to confirm. It does appear that the Trump administration is, like in 2017, selectively targeting certain agencies with these communications restrictions. In other words, this does not appear to be a normal process for a new administration to take control of agencies public affairs operations.

New agency policies, including the scientific integrity policy at HHS, specifically provide scientists with the right to speak freely about their work with the public. Scientific integrity policies also ensure that scientific information and reports are not delayed due to political interference. Therefore, the Trump administration’s instructions to restrict communications seem to violate scientific integrity policy. In doing so, it risks harming public health.

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