The Trump administration on Saturday fired hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including fellows who will be in key public health roles. Retribution.
Among them were the approximately 20 workers who made up the Lab Leadership Services, or LLS, a group of directors that trained public health lab staff and assisted in outbreak response efforts. The two-year fellowship programme was launched in 2015 and focused on laboratory safety and regulatory compliance.
“We came up with a new slogan for LLS: “Disease detector.” If you haven’t tested, you don’t know what’s going to be,” the current fellow, who was among those notified of fire, told NBC News.
A closing email sent to LLS staff on Saturday night cited poor performance as a reason for layoffs, despite most of the fired employees having “good” performance reviews .
Multiple outlets reported that CDC’s large sister programmes are also expected to be significantly reduced as they are called the epidemic intelligence agency or the agency’s “sick detective.” However, as of Sunday, the two officials who spoke to NBC News had not heard of the shooting at the EIS. One said a senior CDC representative had been notified by Sunday that everyone about to be fired.
“Even if EIS is spared, there are several other fellowships that don’t, and that’s a pipeline of next-generation CDC leaders,” the official said. “We’re blocked by our knees. We’re going to disrupt public health for decades.”
Other departments that were reduced included a presidential management fellow who aimed to develop future public health leaders and a public health assistant program that assigns peers to local health agencies, according to the two. officials said.
The termination process is marked by chaos and lack of transparency.
Almost two weeks ago, the Human Resources Administration assigned CDC leadership to look into a list of employees who were in probation or limited-time jobs, including new directors, peers and highly skilled non-citizen scientists. , each one must be “holding “mission critical” or “not mission critical”. According to two CDC officials, the list appears to have not been used in the ultimate dismissal decision.
Representatives from the White House, CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump signed the memorandum on Thursday, seeking to impose “fair and mutual” trade tariffs on all major US trading partners, including longtime allies.
In recent years, LLS fellows have supported dengue testing in Samoa, USA and Olopush virus testing in Florida. In 2020, the group tested thousands of Arizona residents Covid-19.
An LLS fellow who received the notice of fire said his colleagues were less concerned about their work than what the move signaled for public health.
“Many of us could have gone for a more profitable career,” said a colleague who spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns about compromising paid leave for the rest of the week. I said that. “We might have worked at Pharma. We might have worked in biotech and other places and earned more money. But we’re all passionate about public health. and hopes that public health will be successful.”
The sacking message was sent the day after the Trump administration informed CDC leaders of their plans to fire around a tenth of their total workforce and about 1.10th of the CDC leaders. I did.
Representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, previously said the cuts were part of the administration’s greater efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
“HHS is taking action to support the President’s broader efforts to rebuild and streamline the federal government, following administration leadership. This means that HHS is the highest and most efficient one for the American people. “To ensure that we provide services on a standard,” writes Andrew Nixon, Department’s Communications Director.
Last week, the Human Resources Administration directed leaders of federal agencies to reject probational employees, as part of widespread cuts implemented by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s government efficiency. Under that status that can affect hundreds of thousands of people classified as classified. Since the order was sent, at least some probation employees have been notified by the Veterans Affairs and Transportation Department.
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