U.S. Health researchers alarmed as Trump administration pauses meetings, travel, communications

Health researchers alarmed as Trump administration pauses travel, communications The halt has frozen research grants, meetings and key health updates. “Everything is basically in chaos,” said one cancer researcher. The Washington Post

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.

"HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health,” Stefanie Spear, an HHS spokesperson and longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to run HHS, said in a statement. “This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization. There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.”

Some health officials told The Post they had been approved to post data updates considered mission-critical, such as case counts of bird flu.

The decisions to pause communications and travel, which were not publicly announced — and which extended to reporters’ inquiries, with HHS media offices not responding to requests for comment for two days — trickled out as agency staff members and health-care workers across the country have tried to make sense of suddenly canceled briefings, updates and events.

In interviews, health-care personnel described panicked efforts to learn if their programs had been affected, with some speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media or feared retribution from the new administration.

Victoria Seewaldt, chair of population sciences at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, was scheduled to lead an NIH study section Thursday that was abruptly canceled, without guidance on when it would be rescheduled. The session was scheduled to review grants focused on cancers and other chronic illnesses.

Seewaldt has spent two decades serving on study sections, which review research proposals and rate them based on their scientific merit. She said there is no precedent for the pause.

“Everything is basically in chaos. And frankly everyone is terrified,” Seewaldt said. “We’ve never seen anything like this. This is like a meteor just crashed into all of our cancer centers and research areas.”

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