The agencies have until Feb. 7 to comply.
The memo follows several other moves that caused confusion among clinicians and health researchers.
Several key data sites went dark for a few days before going back online.
aimintang / Getty Images
There are some discrepancies between the historic and restored data sets and public-facing web pages.
Some pages on theCDC websitenow use pregnant women instead of pregnant people.
Other resources are still unavailable as of Feb. 6.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Its only going to exacerbate existing problems and embolden people who are predisposed to bullying.
Q: The CDC temporarily halted communications and removed key data sets from its website.
What is the impact of that?
For example, we have atuberculosis outbreak in Kansas.
For the first time, the CDC has not published theMMWR.
This means that people dont know about tuberculosis.
The same is truein some ways even more truefor concerns about theavian flu.
So, we are seeing real-life, real-time impacts.
Local health departments cant build up the capacity within two weeks to do this.
Q: How might the removal of CDC resources affect clinicians ability to provide care?
Has there been any noticeable impact yet?
Polan:Healthcare providers wont know what symptoms to look for.
If they see a set of symptoms, they might not think about what this problem might be.
The problems could just explode.
Those are some of the services that the federal government historically provides.
That includes looking at the differences between men and women with a certain condition.
But the ways that treatments interact with mens bodies and womens bodies are often very different.
Theres a lot of anticipatory concern in these areas.
Polan:The rate of suicide among transgender individuals is incredibly high.
The rate ofthoughtof suicide is even higher.
It is truly life and death for people who are transgender, nonbinary or have different abilities.
Q: What would you say to people who feel overwhelmed or disheartened right now?
How can they make sense of this moment?
Polan: From the Public Health Associations perspective, I would say that we are here with you.
Thats what the public health community is.
Most importantly, you are not alone.
There are and will be resources to help them navigate some of the more difficult times ahead.
We will use all of our tools, and there are other organizations that will do the same.
But I also want to enforce that just because someone says something, it doesnt mean that its true.
Just because its repeated often doesnt mean that its true.
There are ways to do what we know is right and what the science tells us to do.
There is truth out there.
We just need to double-check we preserve it and people know to find it.
