Trump shut down public health communications & funding. ‘Unprecedented and unacceptable’
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PADILLA, SCHIFF DEMAND THAT TRUMP END PUBLIC HEALTH COMMUNICATION AND FUNDING FREEZE
Nearly three dozen U.S. senators, including both members of California’s Senate delegation, last week signed a letter to Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Dorothy Fink, demanding an explanation for, and an end to, President Donald Trump’s freeze on external public health communications and funding.
Two days after Trump took office — Jan. 22 — he ordered all 13 agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) umbrella — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — to cease all public communications and grant disbursements until Feb. 1.
It’s now Feb. 10, and it’s still crickets from HHS.
“With the administration’s own deadline having passed, it remains unclear when these restrictions will be lifted. While limited exceptions exist for critical health, safety, or national security concerns, the freeze has already severely impeded essential public health and biomedical research functions,” the letter signed by 34 Democratic Senators, including Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, read.
This radio silence on public health is having major ramifications. The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)— the epidemiological gold standard — was prevented from being published for the first time in 60 years, even as the H5N1 bird flu outbreak continues to spread.
“The MMWR often includes clinical recommendations for doctors, such as guidance on how to treat diseases that are currently circulating in the United States – and delaying the MMWR means that doctors may not have all the latest information they need to keep their patients healthy,” the letter notes.
The funding freeze has resulted in the delay of clinical trials at the NIH.
“This uncertainty has placed billions in federal research funds in limbo, directly threatening ongoing medical studies and academic research programs,” the letter reads.
The senators condemned the freeze as “unprecedented and unacceptable.”
“While it is not unusual for a new administration to conduct brief reviews of existing programs, no past transition has implemented a blanket freeze of this magnitude,” they wrote.
The Bee sent a media inquiry to HHS about this letter. No response was received by deadline.
CALIFORNIA BILL WOULD END ‘SURVEILLANCE PRICING’
Should businesses be allowed to charge you more for the price of goods and services based on a data profile they have on you?
That could soon be illegal in California, under AB 446, a bill by Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, that specifically would “prohibit a person from setting a price offer to a consumer based, in whole or in part, upon personally identifiable information ... gathered through an electronic surveillance technology.”
Ward’s office used a real-life example of Target marking up a $499.99 television (as shown on the Target app) by $100 as a person entered the company’s parking lot based on their geographic location, which led to a San Diego County lawsuit against the company in 2022 that settled for $5 million.
Other examples mentioned in the legislative digest writeup of the bill include Orbitz charging Mac users more money to stay at hotels because they spend more money, and Hotels.com charging a Bay Area person $80 more to stay in a New York City hotel than someone booking from Kansas City.
AB 446 would a civil penalty “not to exceed the jurisdiction of small claims court for individuals” for violations of the prohibition.
“At a time when prices for basic necessities are rising across the board, it is more critical than ever to ensure that people are not being unfairly charged higher prices due to their actual or perceived characteristics,” Ward said in a statement. “The right to fair pricing should not be a privilege for the few but a fundamental protection for all. One customer, one price.”
The bill is sponsored by the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, whose president, Jamie Court, said in a statement, “People’s private data should not be used against them. This landmark measure will be bellwether to protect consumers from surveillance price gouging.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Call it a ‘Trump Tax’ instead of a tariff.”
- California GOP consultant and Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid, via Bluesky.
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