As part of a flurry of new executive orders and directives from the Trump administration, agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services were mandated to pause outgoing communications — a move that has sparked concerns across the public health sector.

The pause is expected to last through Feb.1, according to a memo from Dr. Dorothy Fink, the acting secretary for the department, and bars any agency under its jurisdiction from issuing any information unless it has been approved by a presidential appointee. The federal Department of Health and Human Services oversees 10 public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.

Since the directive on Jan. 21, the CDC has released some information, such as the updates to the respiratory virus activity levels page. But other key information, such as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, hasn’t been published since Jan. 16.

At least one public health department in the Bay Area, a region known for taking the lead in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is already sounding the alarm. Louise Rogers, the chief of San Mateo County Health since 2015, said in a statement that the recent pause on health communications “is concerning and does not bode well for local health departments’ collective ability to learn, coordinate and respond to emerging communicable disease problems.”

“We rely on routine communications from the CDC and others to maintain awareness of what steps the federal government and other jurisdictions are taking to address problems and to inform our local and regional work,” she said. “This information also helps us keep our local health care community and residents informed about the spread of diseases that might impact them.”

The Santa Clara County and Contra Costa County public health departments both said they are still examining the impact the pause might have locally.

The California Department of Public Health said in a statement that they “typically don’t speculate on the potential impacts of a new federal administration,” but are “committed to protecting Californians’ access to the critical services and programs they need.”

“California will continue to work collaboratively with our federal partners to ensure that families in our state are healthy and our communities are vibrant places to live and work,” the statement said.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said that the pause isn’t unusual and that everyone should “take a deep breath.” But the halt in information — especially during respiratory virus season and at a time when bird flu is raising more concerns — palpably impacts his day-to-day life as a doctor.

Last week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, he said, was expected to have several important articles on bird flu that could have better informed how he talks with his patients about the risk.

“I rely on all these things in order to work with local health officials or with my hospital system and ultimately with my patients to really think about different risks and adjudicate them as new information comes up,” Dr. Chin-Hong told The Mercury News.

While a lot can happen in two weeks, the infectious disease expert said that it is “too early to be scared.” But if the pause is extended, or if the information coming out of health agencies seems to be different after Feb. 1, that’s when there will be more cause for concern, he said.

During these uncertain times, Dr. Chin-Hong said that California is one of the best places to be for public health, referencing the first-in-the-nation COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and Gov. Gavin Newsom declaring a state of emergency for bird flu last month. But California, he notes, can only be insulated for so long.

“If you have different groups of people saying things when you don’t have a unifying federal voice like CDC that leads to a lot of misinformation, particularly on social media, if it isn’t being checked,” he said.