#047: The Impacts of Disappearing Data

Trump administration officials have been removing public health information from federal agency web pages causing concern among public health professionals who rely on this data for public health policy development and program planning and evaluation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) websites, among others, have erased or significantly altered data sets about adolescent health, racial and ethnic health disparities, HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ health.

While a court order has since restored some of the missing data, public health experts wonder about the broader implications of data erasure or alteration. What happens when the federal government not only omits public health data, but also no longer collects it for the foreseeable future?

Atrómitos Principal Amanda Rodgers joins Katy Rodgers, a data analyst for population health and quality at a health system, in a conversation about what missing federal data means for public health, health and human service providers, community-based organizations and advocates.

Katy Rodgers has used her diverse academic background in public health, medical anthropology, religious and women’s studies to lead public health 
and rural health workforce programs in Idaho and transform emergency room responses to human trafficking and intimate partner violence in California health systems.

Amanda Rodgers is a public health professional with over a decade of experience in program evaluation, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement. She leads data collection, stakeholder facilitation, and research development for government contracting and capital funding readiness initiatives for the firm. 

Key Takeaways

Zoom in: Katy and Amanda discuss their prior work together on the CDC’s Rape Prevention and Education Program grant as an example of how federal-level data sets helped create a comprehensive approach to sexual violence prevention. Without federal data, developing an evidence-based intervention like this would be difficult, if not impossible. 

Zoom out: When the federal government no longer collects public health data about specific populations, how can local and state level agencies fill in data gaps that affect not only program evaluation and grant funding opportunities, but also exacerbate health disparities and compromise public accountability?

What can be done

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