Health officials and experts said this week they are reeling after the new Trump administration on Tuesday abruptly halted external communication at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The pause extends through Feb. 1, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. The Trump administration also issued a second order indefinitely halting the travel of HHS personnel, according to a second memo obtained by The Post.

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The NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, awarding about $35 billion in fiscal year 2023 to support scientific research. Other delays were seen across federal websites and publications. The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which provides clinical updates to health-care personnel and had published at its regular cadence after Trump’s first inauguration, did not appear at its regular time Thursday. This week’s edition was set to include updates on avian flu.