Trump bans travel for US government scientists, presentations restricted, documents disappearing
23 January 2025. Related: Treatment access, Treatment advocacy, Research studies.
Simon Collins, HIV i-Base
US-funded scientific research and global healthcare look to be early targets of the new US administration and this will destabilise many HIV related programmes.
In addition to withdrawing US membership of WHO, travel linked to ongoing research and any dissemination of research results have also been suspended indefinitely.
On 22 January 2025, an independent online report includes that researchers “were informed that any public presentations at conferences or meetings must now be cleared by a presidential appointee.” [1]
The Trump administration has also “instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts. The announcement impacts the NIH as well as the FDA, CDC and HHS.”
The US treatment activist organisation TAG has also issued several public statements challenging the scientific denialism, with executive orders denying recognition of transgender and non-binary people. [2]
Please see the linked articles for full details.
Richard Jefferys of TAG also reported that FDA documents relating to more equitable inclusion of more diverse populations in research, including by race, sex and gender are already no longer online. [3, 4]
An online guide to using person-centred language in HIV research that i-Base recently reported on is also no longer available. [5]
A copy of the directive is online here.
comment
US activists are already planning an online resource to track and report other documents as these are identified.
The link to this resource will be added to this post shortly, when available.
Reference
- Kabas M. National Institutes of Health ordered by Trump admin to enact ‘immediate and indefinite’ travel suspension. The Handbag (22 January 2025).
www.thehandbasket.co/p/nih-travel-suspension-trump - TAG press release. TAG Rejects the Transphobia and Science Denialism of the New Presidential Administration. (22 January 2025).
www.treatmentactiongroup.org/statement/tag-rejects-the-transphobia-and-science-denialism-of-the-new-presidential-administrationon-must-be-rejected/ - FDA. Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Populations in Clinical Trials Guidance for Industry. (Archive 3 January 2025).
- FDA. Evaluation of Sex-Specific and Gender-Specific Data in Medical Device Clinical Studies. (Archive 3 January 2025). http://web.archive.org/web/20250114014511/https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/evaluation-sex-specific-and-gender-specific-data-medical-device-clinical-studies
Current FDA website:
https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/evaluation-sex-specific-and-gender-specific-data-medical-device-clinical-studies - i-Base. US NIAID. HIV language guide. (May 2024).
https://i-base.info/htb/49139 (i-Base reference)
Current link pages with content removed.
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/hiv-language-guide (web page)
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files/niaid-hiv-language-guide.pdf (direct PDF)