Briefing: Trans Healthcare/Data Security double feature + Infectious Disease + more
It’s a crossover week for Data Security and Trans Healthcare, whose issues are converging as the administration tries to force hospitals to surrender private medical records of transgender patients of all ages. We also have updates on attempts to destroy public information in Archives & History, and on hantavirus and ebolavirus in Infectious Disease Control.
Transgender Healthcare + Data Security
Over the past year, the Department of Justice has repeatedly sought to obtain private patient data for people who have received gender-affirming care. At least eight care providers who fought back to block or limit such subpoenas have succeeded. Now, the DOJ is judge shopping: After failing to obtain records from a Rhode Island hospital, the DOJ took its case to the administration-friendly Northern District of Texas, where a notoriously ultra-conservative federal judge immediately granted a motion to enforce a subpoena against the hospital. Then, when a Rhode Island judge quashed the subpoena, Judge Reed O’Connor ordered the hospital to provide medical records to him directly. Families have now filed a nationwide class action in federal court in Maryland seeking to block all such subpoenas.
Also in Texas: Texas Children’s Hospital agreed to settle a complaint over Medicaid billing with the Department of Justice and the Texas Attorney General under astonishingly punitive terms. In addition to ending gender-affirming care for youth, the hospital agreed to fire five physicians targeted by the DOJ and Texas AG; to pay the state $10 million; and to fund and staff a free “detransition clinic,” despite already providing services for any patient who wishes to change or discontinue gender-affirming care.
The courts continue to rebuke other efforts to criminalize care for transgender people: In Colorado, the state supreme court ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado to resume gender-affirming care for minors, despite administration threats to terminate funding to the hospital. And in DC, Judge James E. Boasberg granted two separate preliminary injunctions against the Federal Trade Commission, blocking investigations into the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), writing that the FTC provided “extensive evidence of animus” toward trans people.
On our Data Security timeline, we track these and many other attempts to acquire private and sensitive data for political purposes, and on the Trans Healthcare timeline, we compile all major efforts to criminalize and block gender-affirming care for children and adults across the US.
Infectious Disease Control & Prevention
The Infectious Disease Control team added 21 new entries to our timeline. The Andes hantavirus cruise ship outbreak appears to have stabilized, though all US passengers remain in quarantine, some against their will. Meanwhile, a major outbreak of the Bundibugyo ebolavirus is growing in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, exacerbated by US funding cuts for virus surveillance and control. The State Department says the US will fund up to 50 treatment clinics in the region, but its most visible actions so far are strict travel bans, a tactic criticized by experts and the WHO itself. At HHS, personnel chaos continues, with more leadership exits at the FDA and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD), as well as agency-wide layoffs.
Archives & History
The Archives & History team added 5 new entries to our timeline. The Justice Department has deleted hundreds of press releases from its website that detail the charges against January 6th rioters. This follows the DOJ’s request to officially dismiss seditious conspiracy convictions against a dozen Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders who led the attack. A federal judge found the cancellation of $100 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants (including funding for historical research) unconstitutional. And in a case brought by the American Historical Association to protect the integrity of FOIA requests, a federal judge ordered executive staff to comply with the Presidential Records Act, despite conflicting guidance from a recent DOJ memo.
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