Five years after a novel virus rocked the world, killed millions, and continues to sicken people; amid ongoing outbreaks of bird flu and mpox and tuberculosis, public health and scientific research are being gutted in America—and it’s happening more quickly than even experts thought possible.

In its first days, the Trump administration ordered a communications blackout for all U.S. health agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. For some departments and agencies, the order amounted to a shutdown. Trump officials have attempted to halt all meetings, travel, and external communication, and the agencies are exercising extreme scrutiny over all publications, including the revered Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, which alerts the world to new and ongoing outbreaks and other major health issues. The NIH shut down new research projects—a multibillion-dollar industry with deep economic implications across the nation—unless they are “mission critical.” Employees at the CDC and NIH were told on Friday they can’t even buy basic supplies to continue their work. The CDC was ordered on Sunday night to immediately stop working with the World Health Organization, in an apparent breach of the one-year notice required to leave the organization. Trump also signed orders to halt global health funding immediately, reinstate a gag order on abortion among global partners, and attempt to define gender in a way that excludes trans and intersex people. On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management offered federal workers a buyout: salary paid until September 30 for anyone who resigns before February 6—a tempting offer for those who already fear for their jobs but one that could leave some agencies barely functional. (That’s if the buyouts even hold up, since it’s not clear the administration is allowed to make such an offer.)

“This is less than a week into it all,”........

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