DeLauro Leads 84 Democrats in Urging Trump Administration to End the Gag on Public Health Communications and Act Swiftly to Address the Worsening Bird Flu Outbreak

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro sent a letter with 84 Democratic lawmakers to the Trump administration urging them to undo their move to restrict federal agencies’ communications and collaboration. The gag order has harmed the response to prevent the spread of H5N1, and the government must be allowed to resume interagency communications and the sharing of critical public health information. 

“Your Administration must act quickly to address this crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “Viruses will not wait for this Administration to lift its gag order or for agencies to restart their collaboration and information sharing before they spread or mutate. It is clear that these interfering short-sighted actions by your Administration will cause significant harm. This interference must end.”

In the case of H5N1 for example, the United States Department of Agriculture monitors cattle and poultry, the Food and Drug Administration monitors milk, and the CDC monitors human virus cases. To limit spread and prevent human infections, it is important that these agencies are allowed to collaborate and share data. Failure to do so risks worsening an already devastating outbreak that has already affected nearly 1,000 dairy herds across 16 states, over 162 million poultry, and over 12,000 wild birds and infected 70 people, with one associated death. We cannot allow a weak federal response to risk the virus to continue mutating and spreading, which would lead to a much more threating risk to the public. 

“We know you would not like to see another deadly pandemic unfold under your watch,” the lawmakers continued. “[T]hus, we await your swift action to completely lift the pause on external communications by public health agencies, commit to cross-agency collaboration on H5N1, and work to get every necessary state enrolled in the National Milk Testing Strategy.”

You can read the full letter here.