Texas should set the example in timeliness and transparency
The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies – the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health – to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts.
“Silencing communications from these health agencies puts lives at risk by delaying critical information, eroding public trust, and leaving communities unprepared to respond to health crises. Transparency saves lives—silencing does the opposite”, says Terri Burke, Executive Director.
Pausing scientific reports, health advisories alerting clinicians and the public, and real-time online updates means the public will not receive potentially life-saving information in a timely manner, leading to confusion and possibly harm. Without these communications, we may not learn, for example about changes in the bird flu outbreak or receive updates about measles cases across the country and as we are seeing in Houston.
We call on Gov. Abbott to use his influence to persuade the federal administration to reverse this decision so that lives of Texans- and the rest of America- are not put at risk. Texas has always been a leader, when our federal government has made decisions and taken actions that are adverse to the interests of Texans. Nothing can be more serious than this action.