NEW YORK (AP) — A year after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to foster transparency within federal health agencies, a concerning trend has emerged: crucial health information that once flowed freely has become less accessible.
Kennedy's pledge for radical transparency seems to have faltered, as federal health agencies face significant disruptions, including widespread layoffs and the effects of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Certain reports and data collections have either been delayed or eliminated entirely, which has drawn critiques from health professionals and researchers.
Ariel Beccia, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, voiced her frustration, stating, We pay taxes to hopefully have good, inclusive public health practice and data. This past year, it feels like every single day something important that we use in our work has just been taken away by federal officials.
Despite Kennedy's spokesperson, Andrew Nixon, asserting that the Health and Human Services (HHS) agency is leading in transparency with unprecedented openness, critics highlight specific examples showing an erosion of data availability.
Critical Reporting Delays
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has been heavily scrutinized, has failed to release its annual abortion surveillance report, despite expectations tied to Project 2025 which was supposed to enhance data collection. Officials attributed delays to a past chief medical officer's instructions, leading to accountability disputes.
Moreover, essential information on drug overdose statistics, previously tracked by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), has been terminated, which experts say limits visibility into drug-use trends.
Public Health Campaigns Impacted
Federal oversight of smoking, a well-documented cause of preventable deaths, has also suffered. Successful public health campaigns have been halted, and significant survey data on youth smoking habits has gone unreleased, further narrowing public understanding of this health challenge.
Food Safety Monitoring Reduced
Food safety experts have voiced alarm regarding the Trump administration's scaling back of pathogen reporting under the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, limiting surveillance to just two germs, which could compromise food safety monitoring.
LGBTQ+ Health Data Concerns
In terms of LGBTQ+ health, the discontinuation of crucial surveys on transgender individuals has raised public health concerns. Beccia points out that the absence of this data jeopardizes funding and focus for vital health initiatives.
As Kennedy's administration continues to navigate these challenges, significant questions remain about the HHS’s commitment to transparency and safeguarding public health data amidst broader political and operational changes.
