Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts, according to nearly a dozen current and former officials and other people familiar with the matter. The instructions were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services, including officials at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, one day after the new administration took office, according to the people with knowledge, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Some people familiar with the matter acknowledged that they expected some review during a presidential transition but said they were confused by the pause’s scope and indeterminate length. The health agencies are charged with making decisions that touch the lives of every American and are the source of crucial information to health-care providers and organizations across the country. The pause on communications includes scientific reports issued by the CDC, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; advisories sent out to clinicians on CDC’s health alert network about public health incidents; data updates to the CDC website; and public health data releases from the National Center for Health Statistics, which tracks myriad health trends, including drug overdose deaths…”