What Happened When the Trump Administration Ordered a CDC Blackout
Documents obtained by FOIA Files reveal the chaotic turn of events at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the Trump administration ordered the agency to stop communicating with the public.
Welcome back to FOIA Files! I’ve been in our nation’s capital this week evangelizing the virtues of freedom of information as part of Sunshine Week, an annual celebration to promote government transparency. The event started 20 years ago and falls around James Madison’s birthday. Madison, the fourth president of the United States and the primary author of the Bill of Rights, is held up as the father of open government. He famously wrote in 1822 that “a popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce, or a Tragedy; or perhaps both.” Hear! Hear! If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
Sunshine Week is the perfect moment to shine a light on some documents I just obtained. The records reveal what went on behind the scenes after the Trump administration ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to stop communicating with the public—just as cases of bird flu and measles in the US were growing.