HIV, transgender care, climate change and other federal websites go dark
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Several federal websites tracking climate science and health care issues like HIV prevention and transgender care were down as of Friday afternoon.
Why it matters: The sites included topics like contraception, transgender issues and climate change that President Trump and Republicans have repeatedly targeted.
- The administration immediately began changing White House websites after his inauguration.
- The U.S. Census Bureau website was also down as of Friday afternoon.
Between the lines: Trump was asked on Friday about reports that government websites were going to be shut down in compliance with an executive order on DEI content.
- "It doesn't sound like a bad idea to me," he said. "DEI would have ruined our country, and now it's dead. I think DEI is dead, so if they want to scrub the websites, that's OK with me."
- The Trump administration did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
By the numbers: As of Friday morning, 305,578 datasets were available on data.gov, which houses the government's open data.
- On Jan. 20, that website had 307,854 datasets available, per the Internet Archive.
State of play: The following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sites or datasets were scrubbed as of Friday afternoon, though it's not immediately clear what day they were removed:
- The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
- AtlasPlus, which housed HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and STD information
- A contraception page for health care providers
- A page on ending gender-based violence
- Evidence supporting recommendations for HPV vaccination harmonization across genders, ages 22 through 26 years
- Heart disease death rates by gender, by county, Florida
- Information about transgender and gender diverse people (archived Friday morning)
- Pages related to the HIV prevention drug PrEP
- Social vulnerability index, related to demographic and socioeconomic factors adversely affecting communities
- Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Youth
- Creating Safe Schools for LGBTQ+ Youth
- Safer Food Choices for Pregnant People
Between the lines: Health and Human Services and National Institutes of Health pages were down, too, including:
- An NIH page for the sexual and gender minority research office
- An HHS page for Protecting the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) People
A Department of State website formerly directed toward LGBTQI+ travelers now reads "LGB" travel information, removing reference to other gender identities.
Context: Trump on Jan. 22 ordered key federal health agencies to pause all external communications.
- He's targeted transgender health care in several executive orders.
- He also pulled the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
What they're saying: "The removal of HIV- and LGBTQ-related resources from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies is deeply concerning and creates a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks," the Infectious Diseases Society of America said in a statement.
Zoom out: USDA websites that were down as of Friday afternoon included:
- The climate change homepage and resources
- A page on climate change and its effects
Catch up quick: Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, which takes a year, and targeted Biden administration climate protections.
- USDA employees were ordered to delete landing pages on climate change from the agency's website and document climate change references for further review, Politico reported.
Go deeper: Tracking Trump's executive orders: What he's signed so far
Editor's note: This story has been updated with developments.
