Sweeping HHS Layoffs Impact Critical Public Health Programs

The Department of Health and Human Services began major health service changes by doing layoffs across many public health programs throughout the nation on Tuesday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr ordered workforce cuts at HHS to trim 20,000 of its 82,000 staff members.

These employee dismissals ended federal public health programs from their core areas of focus. The branch at CDC responsible for infertility research lost its institutional support only days before President Trump promoted himself as an advocate of fertility. The CDC Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice will be permanently shut down, which means they can no longer work to prevent lead poisoning and improve air quality and climate health.

In West Virginia state authorities reduced their respiratory protection department which guarded coal miners from pneumoconiosis also called black lung disease that continued to affect large numbers of younger miners in Appalachian mines. The departments of Labor reduced their mine safety administration staff at the same time they made changes to this department.

The FDA had to remove all tobacco policy team members due to tobacco company funding while placing its director in an administrative status. The department that explained drug approval status and safety risks to the public was completely removed.

Budget cuts at the Administration for Community Living eliminated teams that help both elderly and disabled Americans. The past HHS team members showed their deep concerns about the modification extent.

According to former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf, “we have reached the end of what made the FDA effective as a healthcare agency.”

On Monday 2,000 members from the National Academies wrote an open letter to warn Americans about the attack on science-based federal programs.