What local health experts make of Trump’s freeze on federal agencies’ communications –

The Trump administration’s direction to federal health agencies will freeze external communications including health advisories, regulations, guidance, announcements and press releases, at least through the end of the month.

A memo obtained by The Associated Press stated that “pause,” which includes social media posts and website updates, would be in place until those communications could be approved by a political appointee.

Leighton Ku, professor of health policy at George Washington University in D.C. and the director of the Center for Health Policy Research, told WTOP the memo stated that the pause would be in effect through Feb. 1.

“That’s next week, so in and of itself, there’s some disruption,” he said. “Fortunately, we are not in the height of the COVID pandemic right now.”

“I think every administration tries to exert some control — whether Democrat or Republican — on their communications and that is inevitable, and I think most people on a bipartisan basis would agree with that,” Ku said.

Nina Ashford, the chief of public health services for Montgomery County, Maryland, sees it the same way.

“Some pause in communications for a short period of time is expected with the administration transition,” she told WTOP.

Asked about how communications from federal health agencies affect the work of local health departments, Ashford explained that the “surveillance, analysis and reporting” that comes from agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, “is really vital for us to be able to understand what the disease threats are and in particular if there’s any new or emerging threats.”

Ashford explained that at the local level, detailed data can help identify trends in public health and “who and which groups might need a little bit more support,” so that “we can tailor resources to the communities that are being hit the hardest.”

Ku also pointed to the value of having communication about the latest data from federal agencies.

“There may be some more concerns about problems such as bird flu,” he said. “We’re still in the midst of flu season.”

“I don’t think it’s a huge problem if it’s only a week that we’re seeing a delay in information,” he added.

However, Ku said it was “disturbing” that the CDC’s weekly report called the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” wasn’t made available on Thursday.

“It has come out for every week for the last 50 years. It didn’t come out this week,” Ku said.

But he repeated that incoming administrations often want to adjust how they handle the flow of information to the public: “Hopefully, it’s short term. The question will be what does this bode for the longer term?”

“If this lasts longer than a few days or a week, our main concern is really around the threat to timely reporting of public health surveillance,” Ashford said

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This article was originally published by a wtop.com . Read the Original article here. .