President Donald Trump has terminated two advisory committees within the Department of Health and Human Services, one on long COVID and another on health equity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The advisory committees were cut in an executive order released late Wednesday night, Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," that broadly seeks to cut “unnecessary” programs to decrease government waste and lower inflation. The order targets advisory committees and programs across federal agencies.
Both advisory committees were established in the Biden administration. Meetings for the long COVID advisory committee had not yet begun. The health equity advisory committee was even less established and had not yet selected its members.
HHS’ advisory committee on long COVID was established in November 2023 and was composed of long COVID scientists and experts from the University of Colorado, Stanford University, Thomas Jefferson University, state departments of health, and more.
The committee was estimated to cost $800,000 per year for compensation and travel expenses.
One member, Cynthia Adinig, was the co-founder of the BIPOC Equity Agency. Her bio on the advisory committee’s webpage calls out her experiences with medical racism and health disparities in marginalized communities.
Other members included researchers that established long COVID research programs at their institutions. Linda Geng was the co-founder and co-director of Stanford's Long COVID Collaborative. She tested therapies for long COVID in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
Eric Herman of Oregon Health & Science University had published studies on long COVID such as “Long COVID - Rapid Evidence Review” in American Family Physician, and contributed to the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research’s “Long COVID Models of Care” technical briefing.
CMS’ health equity advisory committee was established in late July 2024 by former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra. The advisory committee was estimated to cost $1.5 million per year for compensation and travel expenses.
The advisory committee was created to “advise and make recommendations on the identification and resolution of systemic barriers in the CMS programs that hinder access and quality for beneficiaries and consumers,” its founding charter said.
The committee was tasked to address structural racism and eliminate systemic barriers in CMS programs including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Health Insurance Marketplace. It also was tasked with finding opportunities to work with community organizations and identify strategies to assess CMS’ involvement in perpetuating systemic barriers.
The committee was aligned with Biden’s executive order, "Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government," which President Trump repealed on day 1.
The charter says the committee should be made up of 20 to 30 individuals who have experience working with racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minority groups. This includes Black, Latino and Indigenous individuals, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people living in rural areas and people with disabilities.