Judge orders restoration of deleted federal health data

Editor's Note

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore health-related webpages and datasets removed under a January executive order, according to a July 29 article in Medscape. The ruling follows a lawsuit by Doctors for America and the city and county of San Francisco, which argued that the loss of federal online health resources impeded patient care and public health efforts.

As detailed in the article, federal report restoring 67 of 212 webpages listed by the plaintiffs, including those related to adolescent health, endometriosis, and LGBTQ health disparities. However, some webpages remain missing or incomplete. For instance, a CDC page on HIV and transgender patients returns a “page not found” error, and an FDA page on health equity in artificial intelligence contains no data.

The data removals followed a directive issued January 29 by the Office of Personnel Management, instructing agencies to delete outward-facing content referencing transgender identities within 48 hours, Medscape reports. Judge John D. Bates vacated the federal directives, writing that they were “arbitrary and capricious” and failed to follow required legal procedures.

Physicians with Doctors for America submitted affidavits describing disruptions to patient care. One physician said she was unable to access CDC STI treatment guidance during a chlamydia outbreak at a Chicago high school. Another said her efforts to prescribe HIV prophylaxis for a patient were delayed when CDC guidelines disappeared.

The full report offers more detail on how officials replaced gender-inclusive language with alternatives in CDC datasets, the possibility of additional legal action, and reflections from law professors and other experts on deeper concerns highlighted by the case.