In researching my new book Unraveled, I attempted to follow a number of links to the HHS blog. For example, I was looking for an 10/30/13 post by Kathleen Sebelius discussing the state of HealthCare.gov (linked here by Wonkblog). It should be available at http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2013/10/clearing-up-the-facts.html. But if you go to that page, you get a “Page not found” error message. (The irony of a post about the failing HealthCare.gov site producing an error message is too rich). But the problem is much greater–the old blog posts are gone. 

The post was available as late as September 25, 2015 according to the WayBack Machine.

But at some point in the last month, it–and hundreds of other posts–were apparently deleted. The archives of the old HHS blog indicates posts going back to 2010.

If you go to the HHS Blog archives, the oldest post is from September 15, 2014–shortly after Sylvia Matthews Burwell started as the new secretary. Now the archives only go back to 2014.

No doubt it is a time HHS would rather forget, but that doesn’t justify sending five years worth of posts down the memory hole.