Last week, news broke that U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration has ordered all references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and gender identity to be purged from federal research by any scientists affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The move comes alongside similar directives to purge mentions of pronouns, gender identity and trans people from government websites at large.
While what’s happening in the U.S. right now may not seem as dramatic as book burnings from the past, this level of data wipe and censorship comes from the same place: eliminating public records of certain groups of people existing.
Senior editor Mel Woods breaks down why that level of censorship should concern us not just today but for the future of scientific research and health policy.