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The Independent
8 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Hundreds of CDC employees get layoff notices just days after workers return to HQ in wake of shooting
At least 600 employees at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are expected to receive layoff notices this week as the administration seeks to downsize the agency – just weeks after its headquarters became the target of a deadly shooting. Some workers in the U.S. public health agency began receiving notices this week of final terminations, but others have not, making it difficult to determine how many people are being let go, the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing hundreds of thousands of government employees, said. The agency cuts are occurring roughly a week after a federal judge ruled that hundreds of CDC employees could be laid off, with some exceptions. The cuts also come just as CDC employees are returning to its headquarters in Georgia after a gunman fired 180 shots at the building, causing dozens of windows to shatter and leaving bullet holes scattered across the building. Employees who returned to the office this week after the traumatic shooting shared photos with NOTUS that showed windows still damaged by bullet holes and handwritten signs taped to chairs warning people of glass on the carpet. While no CDC employees were killed in the shooting, the gunman, reportedly disgruntled about the Covid-19 vaccine, fatally shot one police officer. Some of those employees being laid off include those in the CDC's violence prevention division, who, in an open letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called the cuts 'harmful' and 'negligent.' 'Cutting this work now, especially after the horrific and tragic shooting that killed DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose and trapped our children in the on-site daycare center into the night while targeting federal employees, is not just harmful — it is negligent,' the 150 employees said. In a separate letter, hundreds of other CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry employees scolded Kennedy for spreading health misinformation – the same kind that may have led the gunman to blame the Covid-19 vaccine for mental health issues. 'When the federal workforce is not safe, America is not safe,' the employees wrote. 'Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is complicit in dismantling America's public health infrastructure and endangering the nation's health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information.' Kennedy has a long history of spreading false information about vaccines, bolstering pseudosciences, and downplaying the seriousness of diseases such as measles or HIV/AIDS. The agency has pushed back against the criticism of Kennedy from staff, however. 'Secretary Kennedy is standing firmly with CDC employees — both on the ground and across every center — ensuring their safety and well-being remain a top priority,' HHS said in a statement to the Washington Post. 'Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy.' The Independent has contacted CDC for comment. Some CDC employees told NOTUS that morale was low upon returning to the office recently, due to the impending layoffs and leadership's stance toward their lifesaving medical research and development. 'We trudge on because we believe in what we do, and we feel a sense of responsibility to the American people, and for some of us, to those beyond the U.S.,' the CDC employees said.
Fox News
8 hours ago
- Health
- Fox News
About 600 CDC workers terminated after court clears part of Trump admin restructuring plan
Print Close By Danielle Wallace Published August 21, 2025 Approximately 600 employees at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been terminated, Fox News Digital has confirmed. It comes as part of a major restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services announced in March. At the time, HHS said the CDC would decrease its workforce by approximately 2,400 employees, "with a focus on returning to its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks." A spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees told Fox News that roughly 600 CDC employees were receiving final termination notices this week and that the cuts "are across the agency, including the Division of Violence Prevention, EEO, FOIA, the Office of Financial Resources, the offices of the chief information and chief operating officers, and more." The CDC confirmed the roughly 600 recent layoffs, pointing to the March announcement that also said the restructuring would involve the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) – responsible for national disaster and public health emergency response – transitioning to the CDC to enhance coordination of response efforts. HHS noted the CDC decrease would only be 1,400 including the individuals coming over from ASPR – approximately 1,000 individuals. KENNEDY'S HHS TERMINATES CALIFORNIA SEX ED GRANT AFTER IT REFUSES TO DROP 'RADICAL' GENDER LESSONS Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is leading the restructuring of his department as part of President Donald Trump's initiative to "Make America Healthy Again." "We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic," Kennedy said in a statement at the time. "This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer." On April 1, HHS officials sent layoff notices to thousands of employees at the CDC and other federal health agencies, part of the department's sweeping overhaul. Many have been on administrative leave since then – paid but not allowed to work – as lawsuits played out. A federal judge in Rhode Island last week issued a preliminary ruling that protected employees in several parts of the CDC, including groups dealing with smoking, reproductive health, environmental health, workplace safety, birth defects and sexually transmitted diseases. The ruling did not protect other CDC employees, and layoffs are being finalized across other parts of the agency. The terminations were effective as of Monday, employees were told. The Associated Press reported that affected projects included work to prevent rape, child abuse and teen dating violence. The laid-off staff included people who have helped other countries to track violence against children — an effort that helped give rise to an international conference in November at which countries talked about setting violence-reduction goals. MEDICAL GROUP GOES AGAINST CDC, RECOMMENDS COVID SHOTS FOR YOUNG KIDS "There are nationally and internationally recognized experts that will be impossible to replace," Tom Simon, the retired senior director for scientific programs at the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention, told the AP. The latest cuts come less than two weeks after a man fired at least 180 bullets into the CDC's campus and killed a police officer. Kennedy has been pushing other policy changes at the CDC. In May, Kennedy announced that the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women had been removed from the CDC-recommended immunization schedule. The CDC currently advises what it calls "shared clinical decision-making" for children aged 6 months to 17 years who are not moderately or severely immunocompromised. This means the decision is left up to individual discussions between families and their healthcare providers, but the vaccine is not treated as routine. Kennedy made the decision in June to fire all 17 members of the CDC's independent advisory council on vaccines and named eight replacements in a step he said was aimed at "restoring public trust in vaccines." Earlier this week, the HHS secretary blasted the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for going against CDC guidance to recommend that all children 6 to 23 months old receive a complete COVID-19 vaccine series. Kennedy shared a screenshot from the pediatricians' association's website, which thanks pharmaceutical companies Merck, Moderna, Pfizer and Sanofi as its top corporate donors. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "These four companies make virtually every vaccine on the CDC recommended childhood vaccine schedule. AAP is angry that CDC has eliminated corporate influence in decisions over vaccine recommendations and returned CDC to gold-standard science and evidence-based medicine laser-focused on children's health," Kennedy wrote. Fox News' Leah Crawley and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Print Close URL
Reuters
a day ago
- Health
- Reuters
At least 600 US CDC employees are getting final termination notices, AP reports
Aug 20 (Reuters) - At least 600 employees of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are receiving permanent termination notices, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing the American Federation of Government Employees. The report added that the notices were sent out this week, and many employees have not yet received them, according to the union, which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at the agency. The Trump administration began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies in April, as part of a sweeping overhaul aimed at shrinking the federal government and reducing spending. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, and the American Federation of Government Employees did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
At least 600 CDC employees being terminated in US, union say
At least 600 employees of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States are receiving permanent termination notices in the wake of a recent court decision that protected some CDC employees from layoffs but not others. The notices went out this week, and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at CDC. The CDC played a crucial role in gathering data and setting health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The terminations come months after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy announced efforts to let go of 20,000 employees, downsizing the department by more than 20 percent. AFGE officials said they are aware of at least 600 employees being cut. But 'due to a staggering lack of transparency from HHS', the union hasn't received formal notices of who is being laid off,' the federation said in a statement on Wednesday. The permanent cuts include about 100 people who worked in violence prevention. Some employees noted that those cuts came less than two weeks after a man fired at least 180 bullets into the CDC's campus and killed a police officer. 'The irony is devastating: The very experts trained to understand, interrupt and prevent this kind of violence were among those whose jobs were eliminated,' some of the affected employees wrote in a blog post last week.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Health
- Washington Post
At least 600 CDC employees are getting final termination notices, union says
NEW YORK — At least 600 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are receiving permanent termination notices in the wake of a recent court decision that protected some CDC employees from layoffs but not others. The notices went out this week and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at CDC.
