The Trump administration’s purge at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has left staffers bewildered.
The firing, which began late Friday night, took place in more than a dozen divisions and centres. They impact teams that investigate infectious disease outbreaks, chronic disease, respiratory disease surveillance, vaccination and more.
Yet in an apparent reversal, the administration is rushing to undo some of those shootings, creating even more confusion.
The move comes in the second week of the government shutdown and is part of President Trump’s efforts to reduce the government workforce. Top administration officials blame Democrats and say the firings are designed to punish them.
Trump said at the White House last week that the shootings, which are not common during the shutdown, would primarily target “Democrat” programs.
“HHS employees in multiple divisions have received notices of cutbacks as a direct result of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement Friday.
“All HHS employees who received notices of reduction in force were declared non-essential by their respective divisions. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that align with the Trump Administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Know here what it is:
More than a thousand shootings; hundreds were brought back
About 4,200 federal employees at seven different agencies will begin receiving notices of reductions in force, the Trump administration said in court filings Friday. An estimated 1,100 to 1,200 Department of Health and Human Services employees are expected to be affected.
Notices were emailed shortly after 9pm EDT on holiday weekends.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2883, which represents workers at CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, said HHS fired more than 1,300 CDC federal employees during the government shutdown, citing retaliatory reasons for their removal.
But within 24 hours of receiving the original cut-in-force notice, nearly 700 employees received emails revoking their dismissals. The administration claimed that these employees were given notices “by mistake” due to a coding error.
Before Friday’s cuts, the CDC had 11,400 employees.
Those initially fired and then brought back included leaders of the Global Health Center, which includes all six CDC regional offices around the world; The team that prepares the morbidity and mortality weekly report; and some employees of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), known as “disease spies”. EIS workers are typically the first responders to an outbreak.
destroying public health
Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC, said, “This administration continues to dismantle critical pillars of America’s already wounded public health system.” “Using a government shutdown as a pretext to fire hundreds of critically important health officials and thousands of additional government employees is the height of cruelty and recklessness. The damage this will do to our country is incalculable.”
A coalition of infectious disease expert organizations, led by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement that targeting CDC’s core functions and scientific leadership would “cripple the agency that keeps our country safe by monitoring and preventing disease and saving lives in every community across the country.”
“Uncertainty about which staff have been fired or rehired leaves health professionals and the public completely confused about which long-term public health services they can rely on,” the groups said.
The damage to the CDC was not extensive and sustained.
“Did they really not know they were firing people tracking Ebola? Did they not care enough to find out who they were firing and what they did before sending the termination letters?” said Greg Gonsalves, a member of the defending public health network’s coordinating committee.
The CDC’s entire Washington, DC office was gutted, which may worry lawmakers. Agency officials describe that office as a vehicle for congressional briefings and congressional inquiries.
leadership is gone
Some divisions have been left untouched, while the leadership of others has been eliminated, according to Debra Horry, who was the agency’s chief medical officer before resigning in protest in August.
Houry said the agency’s ethics office has been completely eliminated.
“The secretary has talked about conflicts of interest, and the ethics office is the one that reviews all CDC leaders and advisory committees for conflicts of interest. So you would think this would be an office they would want to keep,” Houry said.
Some divisions were protected by court injunctions stemming from earlier firings, though the latest round of layoffs will result in new lawsuits.
CDC has been a target
The CDC has been in turmoil since HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as head of the department.
Kennedy has been highly critical of CDC employees, and the agency previously lost about a third of its staff in mass layoffs in April. The latest round of firings came about a month after Kennedy called for “new blood” at the CDC at a congressional hearing.
In August, a gunman fired more than 500 rounds into buildings at the agency’s primary Atlanta campus, killing a police officer. A few weeks later, Kennedy ousted then-agency director Susan Monarez after less than a month on the job, and appointed one of his top deputies as her interim replacement.
Little information has been released publicly by HHS since the shootings began. The Hill has contacted the department for comment.
“The recklessness and callousness with which this administration handles matters of life and death is incredible. The CDC was destroyed earlier this year, and the people who were left behind work every day to protect us all. If all of these new firings are not reversed, people will be harmed and very likely some will die,” Gonsalves said.
Houry said he is not confident that those who have been brought back are safe from further cuts.
“I would be concerned that these are areas where, should HHS reorganize, they might consider making changes [to the impacted offices and divisions],” Houry said. “If they want to consider restructuring, I think these could be a possible early indication.”
A newly laid off employee at the agency said they had been preparing for layoff notices ever since Trump’s budget request called for eliminating several agency centers.
“It’s been a rollercoaster,” the employee said.
