Accurate and available public health information and data are critical for healthcare providers, public health officials, researchers, and others. These data are used by professionals and consumers in the US and around the world for many purposes, such as making informed decisions for patient care, policies, resource deployment, and research. Historically, the CDC website has been a reputable source for information and data. In January 2025, some of these resources became unavailable. As the CDC site has become available again, it is unclear what has been removed or modified. Due to the rapid changes and lack of transparency, the level of tampering is not yet understood and it is unclear whether errors (purposeful or not) are now present.
Our goal is to provide a resource that includes the information and data previously available. We are committed to providing the previously available webpages and data, from before the potential tampering occurred. Our approach is to be as transparent as possible about our process. We plan to gather archival data and then remove CDC logos and branding, using GitHub to host our code to create the site.
This is a volunteer-based, unfunded project. The team consists of public health professionals, experienced web developers, experienced Python coders, and others.
We are developing code to pull CDC pages which were archived by prior to January 20, 2025. Similar archives have been created by the End of Term (https://eotarchive.org) project and are hosted by the Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org). The individual pages are archived, but links between them are broken and the pages are not easy to locate through web searches. Therefore, we will re-build the links between the pages, to create a site that can be navigated the same way the pre-January 21, 2025 CDC site. The only changes we will make on these pages is to add a header that indicates that this site is not a CDC website. Because of the complex navigation between pages, we will also include a button to report problems in this header. Our goal is to provide a mirror site that provides the same information and user experience as the previous CDC website. Some functionality, such as videos, was not archived and therefore will not work on our site.
The CDC site provides a wide range of information and data. For healthcare providers, there is information about the latest recommendations on diagnosis and treatment. For consumers, there is health information and recommendations. For researchers, there are datasets that provide valuable information. For public health departments, there is information regarding trends in infectious diseases and other information required to be prepared for outbreaks. These are just some examples of the information contained in over 46,000 pages.
In the last few days of January 2025, webpages began to disappear. After several days, many of the pages returned, but some alterations have been noted. Some sites include a disclaimer regarding “gender ideology” which “this Department rejects.” It is unclear if these pages will be updated to remove the language deemed to be offensive by the administration.
Do you have a passion for accurate and transparent science communication? We could use you on our team! We are looking for people with the following special skills:
Connect with us on Discord.When you join the server, please fill out a short 6 question application. One of the team will connect with you within 48 hours.