When layoff notices swept through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct. 10, Aryn Melton Backus thought she would be safe this time.
Then she got an email. She participated in a large-scale reduction in workforce (RIF) during the U.S. government shutdown. This wasn’t the first or second time she’d been fired from the CDC over email.
Backus was shut down and restored three times. this year.
Her experience illustrates the inefficiencies and chaos of America’s health care agencies as leaders continue to cut staff and end programs vital to Americans’ health.
The recent RIF exit round is illegal. according to The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is one of the unions representing federal workers suing the government to stop layoffs. Now, with multiple layoffs, a quarter of the CDC has been cut.
Some employees who had to work without pay due to the closure have received RIF notices. Others who were laid off learned they would never return to work. Employees who should have been protected from RIFs due to ongoing litigation received them anyway. CDC’s human resources department returned from unpaid leave to deal with the layoffs of about 1,300 people, some of their own, as the entire HR department was eliminated.
Some destroyed departments are required by law to continue operating despite being unstaffed. The ethics office and institutional review board (IRB) were also terminated. This means CDC can no longer oversee ethics violations and research protocols.
CDC’s entire library staff, an integral part of its research and recommendations, has been laid off. Gone is the Washington office that developed policy briefs and provided information to members of Congress.
Employees in charge of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and suicide prevention were also fired.
Karen Remley, who previously ran the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and is a Virginia state health official, said multiple cuts across the agency mean the CDC is unable to do much of its work, even though some staff remain.
For example, last April the entire team responsible for the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (Prams) was laid off. This means we are now missing an important tool for understanding maternal and child health.
“You can’t get rid of strollers and maintain a registry and do it all,” Remley said. “These artificial separations and divisions actually mean that work at the local level comes to a halt.”
Meanwhile, CDC employees have endured attacks and harassment.
On August 8, a gunman fired 500 rounds of ammunition at CDC headquarters, killing police officer David Rose and shocking agency employees and their families.
There have been incidents of doxing, including the disclosure of personal and personal information of health institution employees. Matthew Buckham, Kennedy’s acting chief of staff, was a co-founder of a group that maintains a “DEI watch list” targeting HHS employees. The agency has also been disrupted by high-profile departures.
“There are no public health or medical experts left at the highest level of leadership at the CDC to help guide CDC recommendations,” said Abigail Tighe, a former CDC employee and founding member of the National Public Health Coalition, at a recent press conference where Backus and other former CDC employees spoke.
“Billions of dollars in contracts and direct funding to state and local public health agencies have been canceled or withdrawn, and Americans have suffered. It is difficult to put into words succinctly what the demise of the CDC means for ordinary Americans.”
CDC’s first layoffs occurred on Valentine’s Day. Probationary employees who are in their first or second year of employment and existing senior employees have been notified because they have recently joined the company or moved to a new role.
judge dominate In September, probationary layoffs were so severe that some employees were reinstated and placed on administrative leave.
Meanwhile, the RIF notice was sent on April 1, eliminating entire offices where Backus worked, including the smoking and health departments. She wasn’t even notified at first because her access to the CDC network, including her email, was blocked.
The lawsuit specifically seeks to prevent employees like Backus from being reorganized into new offices or dismissed from their agencies, she said. So she thought she would be safe this time, but she still received her third dismissal notice. The notice was revoked less than 24 hours later. About 700 employees were reinstated, and about 600 were reinstated. remain closed.
“I’m still on administrative leave and can’t work,” Backus said. “My situation only highlights the chaos and confusion that federal employees have experienced over the past year. I am stuck in a dead end trying to track court cases, gather information, and figure out what my next steps are.”
Charlotte Kent, former editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), said: “There are too many people on administrative leave who have not received RIF. We have too many government resources, too many taxpayer dollars, ineffective to fight the illegal activities perpetrated by this administration.”
MMWR was one of the departments that was completely destroyed and then restored. This was especially surprising because the highly regarded scientific journal was included in the President’s budget request for the first time this year.
“It was really shocking to have the photo cropped at this point,” Kent said.
One former CDC employee, who was laid off on Oct. 10 to avoid retaliation from the Trump administration, spoke anonymously. “It’s like participating in a strange game where there are no rules. “It’s like Squid Games, honestly. “I don’t know what will happen next.”
John Brooks, who retired from the CDC last year after 26 years and served as chief medical officer for several emergency responses, said RIF had shown “astounding incompetence.” Laying off CDC’s Washington staff means “Congress will no longer have direct access to the agency it funds when it needs information or briefings.”
trump administration According to reports They say about 700 of the shutdowns were due to coding errors.
“It’s clear this is not a coding error,” Tighe said. “This RIF was done like every other RIF: they fired as many people as they thought they could avoid, there was public outcry, there was outcry from members of Congress, and they brought back things that people thought were insurmountable.”
She called the shootings “an intentional attack on the health of the American people and the public.”
“Our country is on an uncertain and frankly scary path,” Tighe said. “We would like to see Congress intervene.”
