An epidemiologist has slammed the Trump White House’s deletion of public health data from federal websites as “deeply disturbing.”
The “widespread tampering and dismantling of really critical public health data” at “the direction of politicos, not scientists” is not “in anyone’s benefit,” Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo told CNN this weekend.
The removed data is “critically important” for health agencies to figure out how to best protect different communities and removing it “just makes that job harder,” said Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and the director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health in Rhode Island.
“There’s never been this level of sort of dismantling and tampering with data that we’ve seen, and it is deeply concerning,” Nuzzo added. “It’s only going to sow distrust in the federal government.”
Some outside groups have managed to download and save the data but it’s unknown whether those sets will now be updated, said Nuzzo.
And with health agencies now not communicating with state and local health officials, Nuzzo warned how potentially deadly outbreaks now risk not being properly assessed and monitored.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “can’t even talk to our health officials, they cannot fulfill their statutory obligation to protect America’s health,” said Nuzzo.
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Watch the full interview here: