On January 21, 2025, according to a memo made available by news outlets, Acting Secretary of HHS, Dr. Dorthy Fink, issued a memo directing

Currently, the HHS inspector general's website lists Juliet Hodgkins, principal deputy inspector general, as the highest-ranking member of the leadership team. Hodgkins joined the Office of Inspector General in 2011 and served as the office's acting chief of staff from 2020 to 2022, according to her bio.

The Trump administration's "short pause" on communications, expected to end on Feb. 1, has affected FDA updates on food contamination investigations.

Ahead of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings, experts—and RFK’s own family—expressed concerns about his vaccine-related views, though the same experts are largely unfazed by the level of power he and Marty Makary could ultimately wield over the FDA.

The website changes raise concerns about “the interference of politics with the study and the practice” of science and medicine, a physician said.

As confirmation hearings begin for RFK Jr. nomination as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, many are focused on domestic agenda. The agency has a vast global scope as well.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is going dark, along with other federal agencies within the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This week, the returning Trump administration told these agencies to stop talking to the public—for how long, no one knows.

In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first Senate confirmation hearing, the chaos at the NIH and with federal research funding, new dosages for an Alzheimer’s drug, a major tuberculosis outbreak, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.

Meanwhile, in an executive order, Trump created his long-discussed “Department of Government Efficiency,” to be led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. On paper, the department is tasked with modernizing federal technology and software; however, Trump and Musk have spent months boasting about how it will gut the federal government.

Robert F. Kennedy, Trump’s controversial pick to lead HHS, is slated to testify before a Senate panel that is crucial to advance his nomination.

Of five major HHS agency offices focused on health equity, only one has taken down its website amid President Trump's executive orders to end federal government diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives.