Changes that affect public health are happening at record speed. It can be hard to stay up to date and to know which sources to trust. This section offers links to reliable news sources, trackers, maps, and other legitimate sources of information.

Policy Changes

Presidential Actions:

Every night the White House posts the executive orders and proclamations signed that day. See a summary here.

Words disappearing from Government websites:

As part of the implementation of these executive orders, government websites are undergoing an overhaul of language, science, and data. Read the NY Times article.

Project 2025 Tracker:

Project 2025 is a conservative blueprint by the Heritage Foundation and other organizations that outlines a policy playbook for the Trump administration. Many of the authors of the playbook were nominated for or currently hold Cabinet and sub-cabinet level positions in the presidential administration description. Many of the executive orders issued in these first 100 days were previewed in the blueprint. The Project 2025 tracker shows the administration’s progress in implementing these initiatives. See the summary from the Observer.

Eliminating Employees, Offices and Programs

Federal Layoffs tracker:

This is a crowd sourced document that translates the HHS 10,000 federal employee reduction in force (RIF)  into offices, programs, and functions that no longer exist because the entire staff was laid off.

This NYT tracker examines overall federal workforce cuts by cabinet level departments.

The Impact Project:

The Impact Project provides objective, transparent, and open-source data to help explain how federal policies, funding, and workforce changes affect our communities.

Words disappearing from Government websites:

As part of the implementation of these executive orders, government websites are undergoing an overhaul of language, science, and data. Read the NY Times article.

Project 2025 Tracker:

Project 2025 is a conservative blueprint by the Heritage Foundation and other organizations that outlines a policy playbook for the Trump administration. Many of the authors of the playbook were nominated for or currently hold Cabinet and sub-cabinet level positions in the presidential administration description. Many of the executive orders issued in these first 100 days were previewed in the blueprint. The Project 2025 tracker shows the administration’s progress in implementing these initiatives. See the summary from the Observer.

Data and Databases

Several federal databases that academics rely on for research and public health practitioners use for surveillance, metrics, and information have been removed from federal websites, paused, or changed.

The Data Rescue Project keeps a running tracker of completed & in process data backups, groups working on saving data, and a search bar for the site.  .  

Pre-January 2025 CDC databases that have been restored can be accessed here.