Experts at the CDC have been banned from releasing any new studies or news releases which include certain terms viewed as woke.
The agency has been told to withdraw any literature or pending publications that mention terms such as ‘transgender,’ ‘LGBT’, ‘pregnant people’ or ‘immigrant.’
Dr Sam Posner, the CDC’s associate director for science, told employees in an email late Friday to axe phrases ‘that promote or inculcate gender ideology or that have been flagged as at risk for such.’
Days prior, CDC staff were also directed to edit out any mention of these forbidden terms which caused thousands of health advice pages on the agency’s website to vanish.
The moves come as part of President Donald Trump‘s executive order aimed at rooting out ‘gender ideology extremism’ in the federal government.
Under his rule, only two sexes will be recognized: male and female.
But former and current staff in America’s health agencies have criticized the removal of certain terms as censorship and an attempt to ‘erase people from society.’
The CDC has more than 1,700 scientists and under Trump’s new ruling, if they have authored a paper using any of his forbidden terms, they must retract it for consideration.
As part of Pres ident Donald Trump ‘s pledge to root out wokeism from federal agencies, the CDC has been banned from using a list of terms
If they are co-authors on a paper that originated outside of the agency, they have also been asked to take their names off the paper.
The memo from Dr Posner stated a statement the employees were instructed to use when corresponding with any scientific journal: ‘Consistent with the President’s Executive Order titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, I am removing myself as a coauthor from this submission.’
Larry Gostin, the director of the World Health Organization Center on Global Health Law, told The New York Times said that the directive amounts to censorship.
He explained: ‘It’s important to stress that scientific expression is at the core of First Amendment freedoms, as vital to the Constitution as artistic and political speech.
‘The White House directive is positively Orwellian.’
Meanwhile, Dr Richard Besser, who served as acting director of the CDC in 2009, vented: ‘The information about transgender health being stripped from government websites is absolutely unbelievable.
‘It’s hard to know where to start to talk about just how offensive this is, this attempt by the government to erase people from society.’
Following the withdrawal order, thousands of webpages on the health agency's website discussing these topics now display error messages.
One page detailing LGBT health services no longer works with a message reading: 'This page is archived for historical purposes and is no longer being updated.'
Another message on the CDC website informs users that it is currently being 'modified' to comply with Trump's executive orders.
Many pages that were affected do not immediately appear to be linked to gender ideology. For instance, pages on contraception for healthcare providers and heart disease rates in Florida are also missing.
The withdrawal order goes beyond an initial directive on January 21 that federal health agencies pause their own public communications to allow for a review of those materials by Trump appointees.
In a memo, acting Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink told agency staff leaders that an 'immediate pause' had been ordered on - among other things - regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website posts until such communications had been approved by a political appointee.
Thousands of webpages on the health agency's website discussing topics such as LGBT health now display error messages
The pause also applies to anything intended to be published in the Federal Register, where the executive branch communicates rules and regulations, and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a CDC scientific publication.
The pause was in effect through February 1, the memo said but now it appears it has been extended with no end date announced.
The communications ban stretches to the publication of new recommendations, grant announcements and news releases.
Insiders say that some of the missing content might from the CDC website will return with edited terminology.
However, material on certain issues - such as transgender health - is expected to be permanently scrapped.
The scrubs within the CDC come after the Office of Personnel Management sent a two-page memo demanding all heads of government agencies comply with measures to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The CDC, FDA, HHS, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) were ordered to halt external communications.
Workers at the agencies have fumed that blocking out health information could be dangerous for people who rely on government agencies for health advice.
Meanwhile, employees at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have also reportedly been ordered to pull down content related to climate change from all public websites, according emails obtained by ABC News.
It comes as Trump also ordered federal employees to remove their pronouns from their email signatures.
The CDC removed several pages on HIV, gender-based violence, and sexually transmitted diseases. Pictured above is the outgoing CDC boss Mandy Cohen
The chaotic scenes follow an executive order from President Trump last week requiring all federal agencies to 'recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.'
It is not immediately clear why some CDC pages which appear to have little bearing on transgender issues have been impacted.
The sudden measures have drawn ire from federal employees and health experts.
John Peller, head of the AIDS Foundation Chicago, said: 'This is very alarming. In many cases, basic health information is going dark.'
At the National Institutes of Health, a senior employee this week urged agency leaders to refuse to implement the Trump administration's guidance in an email to acting NIH Director Matthew Memoli and other top officials, according to Reuters.
The employee, Nate Brought, director of the NIH executive office, said Trump's orders ran contrary to years of NIH research and findings about sexuality and gender.
The USDA was also reported ordered to remove pages on climate change. Pictured above is former United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
He wrote: 'By complying with these orders, we will be denigrating the contributions made to the NIH mission by trans and intersex members of our staff, and the contributions of trans and intersex citizens to our society.'
'These policies will lead to mental health crises or worse for tens of thousands of Americans who contribute productively to our communities.'
Meanwhile, USDA employees have also been ordered to pull down content related to climate change - a topic that Trump has repeatedly insinuated is overblown.
In the email, USDA Director of Digital Communications Peter Rhee said the process will require staff to 'identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change' and track related content in an Excel spreadsheet.
'OC will review the submitted materials and make determinations on next steps,' he wrote, referring to the department's Office of Communications.