By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A year ago, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wanted to rebuild trust in federal health agencies, and vowed to employ “radical transparency” to do it.

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But many types of health information that steadily flowed from the government for years or decades has been delayed, deleted and in some cases stopped all together.

The collection and sharing of information was hurt by sweeping layoffs at federal agencies and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Officials took down health agency websites to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump, causing outside researchers to archive federal health datasets and leading to a lawsuit that ended with a judge ordering the websites’ restoration.

Ariel Beccia, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said changes in the flow of federal health information have made her angry.

“We pay taxes to hopefully have good, inclusive public health practice and data,” said Beccia, who focuses on the health of LGBTQ youth. “The past year it felt like every single day, something that I and my colleagues use daily in our work has just been taken away” by federal officials.

Asked about now-unavailable data and information, a spokesman for Kennedy said the premise of The Associated Press’ inquiry was flawed and relied on selective and inaccurate characterizations.

“Secretary Kennedy is leading the most transparent HHS in history, with unprecedented disclosure and openness aimed at restoring public trust in federal health agencies,” said the spokesman, Andrew Nixon.

He pointed to an HHS webpage on the agency’s transparency efforts, which includes a list of canceled government contracts and the repackaging of previously available information — including a U.S. Food and Drug Administration “chemical contaminants transparency tool.”

Here are some examples of how less information is coming out of federal public health agencies than in past administrations.

Abortion

The Project 2025 blueprint that’s been influential to the Trump administration called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to enhance its data collection of U.S. abortions, but the agency failed to post its annual abortion surveillance report in November. (Nixon said it will come out this spring.)

HHS officials blamed the delay on the CDC’s former chief medical officer, Dr. Debra Houry, saying she directed staff to return state-submitted abortion data rather than analyze it. But Houry — who resigned months before the report was slated to come out — said that claim was false. She says the report was derailed because of HHS cutbacks to the funding and staff needed to get it done.

Overdoses

Fighting the nation’s overdose epidemic has long been a priority for both Republicans and Democrats. And the federal government has continued to collect and report on death certificate-based information on drug deaths.

But the Trump administration curtailed other kinds of overdose work, including shutting down the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which tracked emergency department visits — an early alert about drug-use trends. It was discontinued “as part of a broader effort to align agency activities with agency and administration priorities,” officials posted.

Nixon said past DAWN data will remain available. But some experts say that’s not enough, and recently likened the termination of DAWN and other recent changes to spreading cracks in a windshield that makes it harder to see what’s ahead in the epidemic.

Smoking

Smoking has long been known as the nation’s leading preventable cause of death. The federal government for decades has not only monitored what percentage of people use cigarettes and other tobacco products, but also run successful public education campaigns like the FDA’s “Real Cost” and the CDC’s “Tips from Former Smokers.”

Those campaigns were ended last year, although Nixon said the FDA campaign will return.

Meanwhile, layoffs to CDC staff who worked on smoking meant an important survey on youth smoking and vaping — normally out in the fall — was never released. Those layoffs also put a stop to work on a report on smoking for the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General.

Food safety

For three decades, federal health officials tracked food poisoning infections caused by eight germs. In July, the Trump administration scaled back required reporting to just two pathogens monitored by the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, known as FoodNet.

Under the change, health departments in 10 states that participate in the joint state and federal program only monitor infections caused by salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Tracking is optional for infections caused by campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia.

CDC officials said the change would allow the agency to “steward resources effectively.” Food safety experts said the move undercuts the nation’s ability to accurately monitor risks in the U.S. food supply.

LGBTQ issues

Even before Kennedy was confirmed, President Donald Trump signed executive orders to roll back protections for transgender people and terminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

That caused the CDC to remove from its website a range of information about HIV and transgender people. The government also stopped collecting and reporting crucial survey findings on transgender students — data that has shown higher rates of depression, drug use, bullying and other problems.

That data is used to help fund and focus suicide-prevention programs and other efforts. And this is all happening as the federal and some state governments try to discourage gender-affirming care, ban transgender youth from sports and dictate which bathrooms they can use, Beccia said.

“Without the data, we can’t systematically show the harm that’s being done” by these policies, Beccia said.

Nixon said the data collection and reporting now aligns with agency priorities.

Conflicts of interest

Before he was health secretary, Kennedy was a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement and repeatedly accused federal health advisers of conflicts of interest that aligned them with vaccine-makers. In June, he dismissed the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and named his own replacements.

A federal official said the government would release ethics forms for the new members. But it didn’t.

Meanwhile, a CDC website that compiles disclosures by past and current ACIP members has more than 200 entries of former panel members, but information on only one Kennedy appointee. Among those missing from that list are Martin Kulldorff, the initial chair of Kennedy’s reconstituted committee, who had been paid to be an expert witness in legal cases against the vaccine-maker Merck. Another is current member Dr. Robert Malone, who also was paid as an expert witness in vaccine litigation.

AP Health Writer JoNel Aleccia contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By KIM CHANDLER

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — When Patrick Marsh returned to the Bubble Inn cabin at Camp Mystic, he sat in the corner where his 8-year-old daughter Sarah’s bunk had been. The view out the window landed like a gut punch.

Safety from the rising floodwater that took her life would have been just a short walk away, he said. It cemented his belief that the tragedy was “100% preventable.”

“From where Sarah slept to high ground where she would have been safe — 50 yards. All they had to do was walk up a hill,” Patrick Marsh said in an interview.

This undated photo provided by Jill Marsh on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, shows her daughter, Sarah Marsh, 8, who died in a 2025 flood at Camp Mystic in Texas. (Jill Marsh via AP)

Sarah Marsh of Birmingham, Ala. was one of 27 Camp Mystic campers and counselors swept to their deaths when floodwaters engulfed cabins at the Texas camp on July 4, 2025. Grieving parents pushed Texas lawmakers to approve new safety requirements for camps, including mandating detailed emergency plans and emergency warning systems. Sarah’s parents are urging lawmakers in Alabama and elsewhere to tighten regulations. Similar bills have also been filed in Missouri.

“As we learned more and more about what happened at Mystic, the more we realized there were a lot of things that went wrong,” Patrick Marsh said.

The Alabama bill, named the Sarah Marsh Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, will require camps to meet safety standards, including obtaining an emergency preparedness license from the Alabama Emergency Management Agency and establishing emergency and evacuation plans. It would prohibit cabins from being located in floodplains. Camps would be required to have weather radios and a notification system that does not rely on cellular or internet service, which could fail in a natural disaster.

“The flood itself was an act of God, and there’s nothing you can do to stop the flood. But how you prepare for the possibility of flooding, how you handle it in the moment, those things were handled so poorly,” Patrick Marsh said.

Had they been done properly, he believes, “Sarah would be sitting in school right now.”

As they examined camp regulations, the Marshes said they were shocked by how little oversight exists compared with schools and other institutions responsible for children’s safety.

“It was a big surprise, both in Texas and here, to see how little is required and is just self-regulated,” Sarah’s mother, Dr. Jill Marsh, said.

Camp safety laws must reflect regional risks — from floods and tornadoes to wildfires and hurricanes — rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, the couple said.

The younger of two siblings, Sarah was exuberant, with an infectious mix of sass and sweetness, her parents said.

“She was just excited about everything,” Jill Marsh said. “She was always wrangling kids to play, to do gymnastics, to try something new. She was good at seeing people that were maybe left out or sad and would try to encourage them.”

She loved sushi — particularly California rolls — candy and, most of all, people. She made everyone feel special.

Sarah was excited to go camp that summer, Patrick Marsh said.

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The photos from camp that summer show Sarah having the time of her life, often happily showing off her splits no matter the activity.

Jill Marsh spoke to the House State Government Committee on Wednesday. She said she wants Sarah to be remembered for her “incredible, beautiful life,” not just her death. But her legacy can be that children are kept safe as they experience one of the joys of childhood, she said.

The committee advanced the bill, which is backed by Gov. Kay Ivey, to the full House of Representatives.

Rep. David Faulkner, the bill’s sponsor, said the Camp Mystic tragedy exposed gaps in the safety system. “These gaps exist not only in Texas, but in Alabama and across the country,” Faulkner said.

The Marshes say the goal of the legislation is not to shut down camps or burden those already operating responsibly.

“We are not anti-camp,” Patrick Marsh said. “We want kids to go to camp and have these experiences. We just want them to be safe.”

They said many camps already meet the standards proposed in the bill, including comprehensive emergency plans and staff training. “It’s about making sure that last 10% gets on board.”

Nothing can bring their daughter back, they said. But they believe stronger oversight could save other families from the same loss.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Thursday to temporarily block the Pentagon from punishing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, for participating in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Pentagon officials violated Kelly’s First Amendment free speech rights and “threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.”

Kelly, who represents Arizona, sued in federal court to block his Jan. 5 censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In November, Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers appeared on a video in which they urged troops to uphold the Constitution and not to follow unlawful military directives from the Trump administration.

Republican President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days later.

Hegseth said Kelly’s censure was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from the senator’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.

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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, a likely medal contender at the Milan Cortina Games, was barred from racing Thursday after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to not use a helmet that honors more than 20 athletes and coaches killed in his country’s war with Russia.

The decision came roughly 45 minutes before the start of the competition and ended a three-day saga where Heraskevych knew he was risking being pulled from the Games by wearing the helmet, one that the IOC says breaks rules against making statements on the field of play.

The International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said his decision to wear the helmet was “inconsistent with the Olympic Charter and Guidelines on Athlete Expression.” He wore the helmet in training, but the IOC asked for him to wear a different helmet in races. It offered concessions, such as wearing a black armband or letting him display the helmet once he was off the ice.

“I believe, deeply, the IBSF and IOC understand that I’m not violating any rules,” Heraskevych said. “Also, I would say (it’s) painful that it really looks like discrimination because many athletes already were expressing themselves. … They didn’t face the same things. So, suddenly, just the Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for the helmet.”

IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who was slated to be in Cortina d’Ampezzo to see Alpine skiing, went to the sliding center instead to meet Heraskevych. She was waiting at the top of the track when he arrived around 8:15 a.m., and they met privately. After about 10 minutes, Coventry was unable to change Heraskevych’s mind.

“We didn’t find common ground in this regard,” Heraskevych said.

Tears rolled down Coventry’s face after the meeting. The Olympic champion swimmer made clear that she wanted a different outcome, and the IOC said the decision was made with regret.

“As you’ve all seen over the last few days, we’ve allowed for Vladyslav to use his helmet in training,” Coventry said. “No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging. The messaging is a powerful message. It’s a message of remembrance. It’s a message of memory and no one is disagreeing with that. The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play.”

Coventry and Heraskevych agreed that the helmet isn’t clearly visible during races anyway, given that sliders are zipping down the icy chute at around 120 kph (75 mph). That, the IOC hoped, was the window to a compromise. Heraskevych would not budge.

“Sadly, we’ve not been able to come to that solution,” Coventry said. “I really wanted to see him race today. It’s been an emotional morning.”

Heraskevych said he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the race went on without him. The first two runs were Thursday, the last two on Friday. Regardless of what CAS says, if anything, his chance to race in these Games is gone. The IOC is letting him keep his credential, meaning he can remain at the Olympics as an athlete — just not a competing one.

About a dozen Russian athletes are being allowed to compete at the Olympics as neutral individuals along with seven Belarusians. They are not allowed to compete under their national flag or anthem. Heraskevych has spoken out several times about why he believes they shouldn’t be at the Olympics and said the IOC’s decision “plays along with Russian propaganda.”

The decision drew immediate condemnation from officials in Ukraine and some athletes.

“Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Unfortunately, the decision of the International Olympic Committee to disqualify Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says otherwise.”

“Disqualified. I think that’s enough to understand what the modern IOC really is and how it disgraces the idea of the Olympic movement,” added Ukrainian skier Kateryna Kotsar on Instagram. “Vladyslav Heraskevych, for us and for the whole world, you’re a champion. Even without starting.”

The IOC had sided with Ukraine’s top slider before. When he displayed a “No war in Ukraine” sign after his fourth and final run at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the IOC said he was simply calling for peace and did not find him in violation of the Olympic charter.

This time, Heraskevych said he believes there are inconsistencies in how the IOC decides what statements are allowed. Among those he cited: U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov bringing a photo of his late parents — former pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were among the 67 people killed in a plane crash on Jan. 29, 2025 — to the kiss-and-cry area after his skate in Milan this week, and Israeli skeleton athlete Jared Firestone’s decision to appear at the opening ceremony wearing a kippah that bore the names of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed in the 1972 attack during the Munich Games.

“A competitor literally placed the memory of the dead on his head to honor them,” Heraskevych wrote on Instagram. “I frankly do not understand how these two cases are fundamentally different.”

Firestone said he admired Heraskevych. “I think he’s a man with strong values,” he said.

In Milan, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said if athletes were allowed to display messaging without restrictions on the field of play “that would lead to a chaotic situation.”

“Sport without rules cannot function. … If we have no rules, we have no sport,” Adams said.

Heraskevych was fourth at the world championships last year and was among the fastest in training leading into the Olympic races. A medal was certainly within reach, but to Heraskevych, the helmet mattered more.

“The International Olympic Committee destroyed our dreams,” said Mykhailo Heraskevych, the slider’s coach and father. “It’s not fair.”

AP journalists Julia Frankel, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.

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