Health researchers alarmed as Trump administration pauses travel, communications

[cliffside]

Full article

https://wapo.st/4jI1Wuj

"No meetings of cancer researchers to discuss issuing new federal grants. No new scientific reports on lessons from fighting avian flu. Not even private briefings for congressional staffers who have questions about health agency operations.

Health officials and experts said this week they are reeling after the new Trump administration on Tuesday abruptly halted external communication at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The pause extends through Feb. 1, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. The Trump administration also issued a second order indefinitely halting the travel of HHS personnel, according to a second memo obtained by The Post.
The Trump administration Thursday defended the holds as a part of the presidential transition and said it had provided flexibility for urgent communications...

... “It is hard to imagine a worse time to prohibit federal officials from communicating directly with the clinical laboratory community and the public health workforce,” one laboratory leader said, noting the slew of winter viruses and increasing risk of avian flu. “Viruses don’t care who the CDC director or HHS secretary is, or what spin newly appointed political leadership want to put on their agencies’ efforts.”

[Irish_Dem]

1. The US will no longer be respected as a leader in scientific research.

[Hugin]

4. After Herr Herpes comments about knowing bad guys by the look in their eyes...

The US has phrenology in the bag. Where’s that damn Nobel Committee!

[EndlessWire]

2. It does no good

to question, "What are they thinking??" They aren't thinking. They are trying to kill us.

All of these new restrictions on health care were all things that enabled Trump to receive specialized health care when he became ill during the pandemic. Trump is committing suicide if the bird flu kicks up and turns into another pandemic. We don't know where the bird flu is going. How utterly stupid for Trump or Kennedy to curtail this research, or any health research. It will be too late for them to say, "My bad," if it blows up.

What if Baron came down with a fatal case of bird flu? Any Trumpian regrets for that possibility? I doubt if he would regret Melania getting it, because they are not together, but Baron?

This is the stupidest, meanest thing that the Orange Hellbeast has done. Research pays huge dividends to protect the public health, and they can't do it without money and communication. So, this shows you the amount of feelings and care the new government has for the country. Which is nothing. I think that brain worm actually ate their souls.

[Hugin]

3. Since Assad already did chemicals against his own countrymen...

I guess they’re going a different direction in their quest for a one party state.

Any word from the SCrOTUS on equal protections yet? Justifications for how this is an official act?

[cliffside]

5. Funds for fight against HIV/AIDS paused in Trump aid freeze

full article
https://wapo.st/4gbJk2M


"The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide and has generally enjoyed bipartisan support.

President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on foreign aid, an executive order signed the day after he took office, applies not only to new funding but existing funding as well, according to a memo that many U.S. diplomats were surprised to receive Friday. The far-reaching move could disrupt U.S. programs around the world, including a widely lauded effort to combat HIV worldwide that is credited with saving some 25 million lives, U.S. officials warned.

The extension of the pause to include existing funding caught many officials off-guard. While incoming administrations often pause and review new funding, halting existing funding and issuing stop-work orders is not standard. Though the memo made some exemptions — including for the billions of dollars of U.S. aid to Israel and Egypt — there appeared to be no exemption for many other programs, including PEPFAR, which received $7.5 billion annually.

...“I really have to wonder if the people mandating this at the State Department have any tangible idea of what this will mean in practice,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official. “If this is implemented as written, it means that nutrition and water programs fighting famine in Sudan will stop work. Health clinics in Gaza providing lifesaving health care will stop work. HIV patients will stop receiving their antiretroviral treatments.”