Mass layoffs began at the major US health agencies on Tuesday as the Donald Trump administration embarks on a major restructuring that will cut 10,000 jobs.
Last week, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that the layoffs were a component of a significant departmental reform that aims to redirect efforts towards the prevention of chronic diseases.
Employees were notified of their termination by email or by the fact that their access badges were not functional when they arrived at work on Tuesday morning, according to images and testimonies shared on social media.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the federal agencies it manages, including those in charge of medical research (NIH), epidemic response (CDC), and new drug approval (FDA), are impacted by the layoffs.
Jeanne Marrazzo, who had succeeded Anthony Fauci as head of one of the NIH’s branches, was among the senior executives from these agencies who have reportedly been offered relocation to remote areas in Oklahoma or Alaska, according to US media reports.
Robert Califf, a former FDA commissioner during the Obama and Biden administrations, stated, “The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed.”
The move comes despite the country facing its worst measles outbreak in years and mounting fears that bird flu could spark the next human pandemic.
Kennedy has alarmed health experts with his rhetoric downplaying the importance of vaccines and even suggesting that avian influenza should be allowed to spread freely among America’s poultry.
According to an official statement last week, along with early retirements and so-called “deferred resignations,” the department’s workforce will be reduced from 82,000 to 62,000 employees, saving an estimated $1.8 billion annually, which is just a tiny fraction of the $1.8 trillion annual budget for HHS.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl,” Kennedy stated. “We are realigning the organisation with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”
The restructuring plan would consolidate the current 28 divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services into 15, including a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America or AHA.
Kennedy’s long history of spreading false information about vaccines and questioning fundamental scientific theories has raised serious concerns, even though tackling issues like the obesity epidemic in America and industry-favoured food regulations is in line with the concerns of many in the scientific and medical communities.
Two people have died, and hundreds of others, the vast majority of whom were not vaccinated, have been affected by the current measles outbreak.
