Researchers Scramble to Save Government Data

On January 20, his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering federal agencies to use the word “sex” and not “gender” in all federal documents.  In response, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management Charles Ezell required agencies to take down any websites that in his words “promoted gender ideology.”  Hundreds of federal websites began disappearing, including a wide variety of public health datasets managed by the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.  On February 11, District of Columbia federal judge John Bates issued a temporary restraining order requiring the Trump administration to restore access to public health data.  Court order or no, some researchers are taking no chances, and are doing what they can to preserve crucial U.S. government data.  Niema Moshiri is an Associate Teaching professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the University of California, San Diego, who works in computational biology.  He joined the Monday Buzz on February 17.

Featured photo: Data tape storage at NCHS. (photo by CDC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

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