The Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to eliminate approximately 10,000 full-time positions in one of the most significant workforce reductions in the agency’s history. The total number of HHS employees is expected to drop from 82,000 to just 62,000 when accounting for both current and previous layoffs. This drastic downsizing comes as newly-confirmed Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begins implementing his controversial vision for reshaping the nation’s public health infrastructure.
The sweeping cuts target numerous divisions within the sprawling department that oversees critical agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. Affected workers describe an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty as they await pink slips, with one anonymous CDC official likening the process to a “Hunger Games reaping.”
Critics warn the massive reductions could severely weaken America’s public health capabilities at a time when the nation continues to face pandemic threats and other health challenges. The cuts align with Kennedy’s long-stated goal of dismantling federal health agencies and follow a Trump-endorsed efficiency plan developed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Kennedy is simultaneously moving forward with other contentious policy shifts, including plans to provide CDC vaccine safety data to a researcher widely discredited for promoting debunked vaccine-autism links. The department has also abruptly canceled an FDA meeting on flu vaccines, while Kennedy himself has drawn criticism for downplaying the importance of vaccinations during Texas’ ongoing measles outbreak.
Public health experts fear these changes represent just the beginning of a broader dismantling of the nation’s health protections under Kennedy’s leadership. The sweeping reforms are being implemented with remarkable speed, leaving many career officials and health professionals scrambling to understand the long-term implications for America’s public health system.
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