“This information is public and they belong,” Rasmussen posted. “Deletion disobedience is a way to fight back.”
As Rasmussen sees it, the removal of CDC data “theft” from the public domain and the archiving of CDC data can simply be “taken back”. But at the same time, her team also takes steps to ensure that the data they collected can be lawfully stored. Because the CDC website has not been copied and hosted on a server, they expect their archive to be considered legal and must remain online.
“I don't put it beyond this administration to try to close this stuff in all possible ways,” Rasmussen told Ars. “And we wanted to ensure that there were no legal lenses that would jeopardize someone in the group, but that would also endanger the data.”
It is not clear whether some data has already been lost. Apparently the same user who has uploaded the removed data sets to I posted on the Reddit, which should contain the “full” archive “all public datasets that were available” before “everything was scrubbed”, it probably only includes “the most” of The “metadata and attachments.” So researchers who download the data can still have trouble filling in some spaces.
To help researchers get quick access to the missing data, everyone can help the datasets sow, the Reddit user said in another message that offers seed and mirror instructions. Currently, dozens are sowing for a few hundred colleagues.
“Thanks to everyone who has requested this important information, and in particular to those who offered to mirror it,” wrote the Reddit user.
While Rasmussen works with her group to make their archive more user -friendly, her plan to help as many researchers as possible fight back against data removal to continue to refer to deleted data in their research. She suggested that effort – making science that ignores Trump's executive orders – is perhaps a more powerful way to resist and defend public health data than to participate in loud protests that many researchers in the US (and perhaps trust trust on federal financing) may not be able to afford it.
“Just by doing things and standing up for science with your actions, instead of your words, you can, I think, make a big difference,” said Rasmussen.
