Trump Administration Restores Removed Webpages Following Court Order
The Trump administration has reinstated key health webpages following a court-ordered deadline that required them to be back online by 11:59 PM on February 11th. This action follows a lawsuit filed by Doctors for America (DFA), a group representing physicians and medical students, against multiple federal agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The lawsuit challenged the removal of health-related data from government websites.
A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order, mandating the restoration of numerous webpages specifically highlighted in the lawsuit. Among the affected resources are important tools such as the Social Vulnerability Index and the Environmental Justice Index, which assess whether certain populations face disproportionate health risks.
DFA argues that these agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Paperwork Reduction Act by removing public access to the webpages without adequate notice. According to DFA, the sudden removal of these resources disrupted their members’ ability to treat patients effectively, forced them to seek alternative data sources, and delayed critical research efforts. The plaintiffs claim these actions have compromised clinical practices, slowed patient care, and limited their ability to communicate vital information during medical visits.
The removal of these webpages began after President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” on his first day in office. Following the executive order, the CDC’s main data portal briefly went offline, returning with a note stating, “Data.CDC.gov is temporarily offline in order to comply.”
The court order requires all webpages to be restored to their state as of January 30th. While The Verge has not yet verified whether the restored pages match their earlier versions, the order also compels the defendants to collaborate with DFA to identify additional resources that need to be reinstated. These resources must be restored by February 14th.
So far, the CDC, FDA, and HHS have not responded to requests for comment regarding this case. DFA emphasizes that the temporary restraining order is essential to safeguard public health and ensure uninterrupted clinical practices while the lawsuit determines the legality of the agencies’ actions.
This is an evolving situation, and updates will follow as developments occur.
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