Dozens of employees were fired from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late Friday as the Trump administration made good on its promise to begin massive layoffs in response to the lengthy government shutdown.
The layoffs included heads of departments involved in respiratory diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention and global health, the New York Times reports. Time reported. About 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, also known as “disease detectives,” the entire staff and editors of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) publication, and the agency's Washington office were notified of their termination, according to the report.
This comes as the agency is still reeling from months of uncertainty after change of leadership And priorities under the leadership of the new head of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Read more: Exclusive: CDC Exodus and RFK Jr.'s Anti-Vaccine Crusade
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, said Friday's layoffs would be a death blow for an agency that had already suffered from previous cuts under Kennedy.
“CDC will lose the ability to detect and respond to outbreaks. They will no longer be able to track diseases in America and around the world. This includes infectious threats such as influenza, foodborne illnesses and Ebola, as well as chronic diseases and injuries,” she said.
Rasmussen added that losing the MMWR would leave the CDC unable to communicate with the public.
“Collectively, this means that the CDC is not functioning. It cannot fulfill its mission,” she says. “America no longer has a national public health agency.”
Other doctors, including Michelle Au, a Georgia state representative and anesthesiologist, tagged on social networks that the US is “entering a respiratory season where viruses like influenza, COVID and RSV are flying blind.”
The CDC did not respond to TIME's request for comment.
This comes as the nation's leading public health agency has faced blow after blow, from the tragic shooting at their Atlanta headquarters to Kennedy's firing of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monares.
Read more: The CDC shooting is a grim sign for science and America.
This was reported by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). federal agencies plan for reduction in powers (RIF) in the event of a government shutdown caused by disagreements over healthcare and subsidies associated with the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The gap between the two parties is primarily driven by the Democratic Party's demand to extend the Affordable Care Act for low- and middle-income Americans, which is set to expire at the end of the year.
Read more: Republicans say Democrats want to provide health care to illegal immigrants. Here are the facts
The White House and Republicans have sought to blame the suspension on Democratic leaders, with President Donald Trump telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that the layoffs would target those who are “Democratic-oriented.”
“These are basically the people that the Democrats want, and a lot of them will be fired,” Trump said. “It's going to be a lot.”
The mass layoffs come just two months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Exodus senior agency officials who said they were forced to resign in August after Kennedy sidelined officials and ignored scientific research and protocols as he was entrusted with the role of leading the department.
“Having worked in local and national health care for many years, I have never encountered such radical opacity or seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve political ends rather than the good of the American people,” former CDC director Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said in his book. resignation letter.
At a hearing with Senate lawmakers following her firing by Kennedy, former Director Monares recounted heated meetings with the head of HHS, who she said called the CDC “the most corrupt federal agency” in the government and asked her to fire vaccine scientists without cause.
“I was fired for toeing the line of scientific integrity,” Monares said.