2/3/2025
On January 20, the White House released an executive order declaring its commitment to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.” Companies like Google and Meta were quick to roll back such programs, letting go of their entire DEI departments and halting initiatives that sought to increase diversity of job candidates.
Short for Diversity Equity and Inclusion, DEI programs were instituted to protect underrepresented communities from facing discrimination in the workplace. They aimed to provide equitable access to jobs, healthcare, information and much more.
This week, the impacts have bled past hiring practices. Many Americans felt mild panic when they tried to find information on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, only to be redirected to a 404/missing or not found screen. Alarmingly, AtlasPlus had been taken down. This was a tool created by the CDC to monitor HIV, viral hepatitis, STD, and TB cases. It also aimed to help the public by providing indicators on social determinants of health (SDOH), “the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.”
The CDC is not the only federal agency impacted by the recent slurry of executive orders. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)– the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research –has been forced into a hiatus after Trump indefinitely suspended agency communications and grants. What this means is that the NIH is unable to conduct any new research. Esther Choo, a physician whose research section got canceled as a result of the NIH blackout stated, “I hope we get back on track soon. There are real people, real lives, waiting on… [this] science.”
Whether or not you agree with the DEI bans and other orders from the President, the fact of the matter is that his actions have started to impact public health. The CDC and NIH are agencies created to protect and serve the public. Now censorship from the White House is impeding their ability to do their jobs. Everyone deserves access to information about their health. The President should certainly not suspend information and work of this nature.
As federal agencies, the CDC, NIH, and countless others have been forced to comply with these bills. But we don’t have to. That’s why countless individuals on Reddit have taken matters into their own hands. Following the purge of information from several federal websites, Redditors have been posting on the thread ‘r/datahoarders’ to salvage as much information as they can.
The engineering community should follow suit. If we have the skills to make important data accessible, such as that provided by the CDC and NIH, we need to do what we can. As engineers, we should be devoted to bettering the world around us. That includes using our skills to take a stand and protect our communities when we are given the chance.