Mass layoffs have started as part of President Trump’s plan to cut 10,000 health jobs. Leah Douglas and Marisa Taylor reported on April 1 for Reuters that people have been fired at health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Among the people let go was Brian King, head of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, according to an email sent by King to FDA staff, obtained by Reuters.
“Peter Stein, the director of the Office of New Drugs in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research division, resigned on Tuesday, according to one source familiar with the matter,” Douglas and Taylor wrote.
On March 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced sweeping changes to staffing and organization inside the agency through a restructuring that will cost 20,000 jobs, Healthcare Innovation’s Mark Hagland reported last week.
At the NIH, at least five senior leaders were put on leave, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Rachel Roubein and Joel Achenbach wrote for The Washington Post. Others were offered reassignment to remote locations at the Indian Health Service (IHS).
“Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington predicted the cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious diseases, like the ongoing measles outbreak, spread,” Carla K. Johnson reported for APNews.
“We are really here to raise the alarm. Why? Because the Measles President and Secretary Kennedy are trying to turn the Department of Health into the Department of Disease,” Murray said at a press conference last week.
On Tuesday morning, NBC News’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr., Daniel Arkin, Brandy Zadrozny, and Erika Edwards reported that “The Trump administration carried out mass layoffs across the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday, aiming to slash around 10,000 full-time jobs from the federal agencies long tasked with regulating food and drugs and overseeing the nation’s public health policies. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is attempting to reduce the health department’s workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 across several agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health,” they wrote.
“The drastic job eliminations are part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wider plan to reshape the federal public health infrastructure and dismantle traditional institutions,” the NBC News reporters continued. “Kennedy repeatedly promised to hollow out the CDC and NIH during his failed presidential bid last year. The administration made especially deep cuts to divisions responsible for tackling HIV, improving minority health and preventing injury, such as gun violence. Jobs were eliminated at offices overseeing the approval of new drugs, providing health insurance and responding to infectious disease outbreaks.” And they quoted one CDC staffer as saying that “It’s a terrible dark day.”
What’s more, they wrote, “Communications offices were gutted, too: The entire team at the FDA’s office of media affairs was axed, according to sources familiar with the matter. Most of the communications team of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — about 50 people — was also cut, according to a senior staffer.”
Meanwhile, the Post’s reporters noted in their report that “The reductions will save the department about $1.8 billion annually, the agency said in a news release, by reducing staff from 82,000 to 62,000. Half of those 20,000 employees took buyouts and early retirement, while 10,000 will be laid off. Brian King, the head of the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco center, has been placed on administrative leave immediately and was given an offer to work at a remote Indian Health Service field office in the West, according to Mitch Zeller, a former head of the center who has been in touch with FDA staff.”
What’s more, the Post reporters noted, “Some FDA staff discovered they were part of the sweeping reduction in force when they arrived at the agency’s campus in White Oak, Maryland, on Tuesday morning and their badges would no longer let them into the building, according to two FDA staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. The agency charged with overseeing the safety of vaccines and medicines, the majority of the U.S. food supply and tobacco products is slated to lose 3,500 employees, HHS said last week, and notices have begun arriving in inboxes.”
Per all of this, Newsweek’s Barney Henderson wrote on Tuesday morning that “HHS plays a central role in safeguarding the nation's health, monitoring disease outbreaks, regulating food and medical safety, funding research, and administering insurance programs that serve nearly half the U.S. population. Critics of the cuts warn they will jeopardize the country's ability to respond to health emergencies and ongoing disease threats.”
Further, Henderson wrote, “Beyond federal agencies, local and state health departments are also bracing for job losses following HHS' decision to rescind over $11 billion in COVID-19-related funding. Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said some departments have already begun cutting staff. ‘Some of them overnight, some of them are already gone," Freeman said, noting that hundreds of local jobs may be eliminated due to the sudden loss of funding.’ Labor leaders and Democratic lawmakers have condemned the loss of collective bargaining rights as a blow to federal employees' workplace protections,” he added.
