The Trump administration on Friday laid off dozens of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the government shutdown persists in Washington.
The firings at one of the nation’s top public health agencies follows a series of turmoil around leadership changes and a stark update to guidance on health and vaccine policies.
Among those dismissed were employees at the Epidemic Intelligence Service — which investigates disease outbreaks — the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and fellows in the Laboratory Leadership Service, according to Politico.
Many received termination emails on Friday evening, days after the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told federal agencies to plan for reduction in forces (RIFs) in the event of a government shutdown.
In addition to the officials, staff and editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report also received notices of their terminations, The New York Times reported.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) blasted the move in a post online.
“They are building a Propaganda State. They are cooking the books on job creation,” he wrote on social platform X, after learning of the firings. “Now they are rigging death numbers so no one knows how many people die because of their attacks on vaccines and science.”
Murphy has not been the only lawmaker to raise concerns about staffing adjustments at the agency. Republicans expressed discontent earlier this year after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired former CDC director Susan Monarez in August.
“Susan Monarez is a highly capable scientist who brought a wealth of experience to the agency,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in late August. “While I recognize that the CDC Director serves at the pleasure of the President, I am alarmed that she has been fired after only three weeks on the job.”
She added at the time that “this matter warrants congressional oversight.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has also questioned Kennedy over the decision — which led to the resignations of several other top health officials, who citied the secretary’s policies on vaccines as a reason for their departure.
Cassidy grilled Kennedy over the summer about allegations that he sidestepped recommendation from the CDC officials and tried to force them to adopt policies not backed by scientific research. He later called for the HHS chief’s new vaccine advisory panel to pause its meeting until oversight of the agency is complete.
“These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership,” he said during a hearing in August.
Kennedy earlier this year removed several board members from their posts and replaced them with known vaccine critics, which has sparked backlash.
The latest layoffs come after the Senate failed seven times to push through a continuing resolution that would have funded the government through Nov. 21. On Friday, day 10 of the shutdown, the White House announced that the RIFs had begun.
Several agencies have been impacted by the layoffs, including the Education Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
