As an organization dedicated to research, we find the sudden disappearance of pages and datasets from U.S. government websites to be very troubling. The collection and dissemination of accurate data and findings fuel research all over the nation, in academic programs, think tanks, hospitals, private labs, and in state and local governments. But this isn’t just a problem for researchers whose projects or even life’s work have been interrupted or derailed. It’s the human cost of this loss that should worry all of us.

More than 8,000 web pages across a dozen U.S. government websites were purged, and while it covers everything from a veterans’ entrepreneurship programs to a NASA site, the purge of webpages and datasets related to public health is particularly alarming. The purges, which include more than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have removed information and articles about vaccines, tuberculosis surveillance, veterans’ care, women’s health, HIV testing and prevention measures, Alzheimer’s warning signs, and overdose prevention training, among many other topics.

The datasets that have disappeared include large-scale national health surveys, indices, and data dashboards that are essential for policy makers and the public. The Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, American Statistical Association, and Population Association of America sent a letter to Congressional leadership, signed by 230 national, state, and local organizations and 2,600 individuals, calling on Congress to restore the purged sites. A patchwork of some of the databases was preserved as researchers scrambled to grab and archive as many as they could before the purge took place. Some of the pages have come back online, sometimes due to court order.

These purges, conducted at breakneck speed with seemingly little thought put into the long and short term impacts of the move, reflect not just a disdain for science, but for the people that science serves.

Anyone whose lives have been touched by Alzheimer’s, by cancer, by chronic disease, by the need for medication—that is to say, every one of us—should be concerned about the administration’s actions. Delays in research mean delays in breakthroughs, delays in treatments, delays in cures. For many people, data is a day-to-day concern, and every day counts.

Shar Habibi
Research and Policy Director
In the Public Interest