Massive layoffs begin at the high American health agency

Hundreds of federal health workers learned on Tuesday on Tuesday that their job had been cut, many have turned into their office doors, while the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS) has progressed with its mass restructuring plan.

Releases included several senior officials and affected agencies responsible for supervising food security and drugs in the country, as well as combat diseases.

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced last week that 10,000 workers would be dismissed, and thanks to voluntary departures, the workforce would be reduced from 80,000 to 60,000.

President Donald Trump has worked since the day of the inauguration with advisor Elon Musk to reduce the federal payroll.

The White House said last week that it planned to reduce 3,500 full -time employees at Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and 2,400 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The administration said that it also cuts 1,200 employees of the National Institutes of Health.

Health workers began to hear from 05:00 EDT (10:00 am BST) on Tuesday that they were dismissed.

Long before Sunrise, Preston Burt, specialist in communications from the Science and Environmental Health Division of the CDC for 10 years, received an email saying that he, with all his division, was dismissed.

The division included hundreds of employees working with 33 states, mainly helping local health services to collect data on environmental health and provide the public information on dangers such as mercury and radon poisoning.

Two weeks ago, Burt and other members of the Division staff participated in an exercise to assess how to react to a nuclear or radiological incident. All these staff members have been released, he said.

“Now, if there is a nuclear disaster, who will they call as experts?” He asked.

Although Burt was not shocked by the dismissal, others learned that they had been dismissed when they presented themselves at their offices and could not scan their badges to enter.

The employees waited in long lines outside to access buildings during confusion and chaos.

HHS is a department with a budget of $ 1.8 billion (1.39 billion of sterling books) which oversees 13 agencies, including the CDC, the FDA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The main managers dismissed in restructuring included the director of the National Institute of Infectious Allergies and Diseases, Jeanne Marrazzo. She managed Anthony Fauci to lead the agency that had led the American fight against COVID-19.

MARREZZO – And several other directors – have been informed that they were reassigned to the HHS Indian Health Services Division in other places, according to the media. They were asked to decide by Wednesday if they planned to accept the new roles.

The administration also dismissed FDA staff who participated in the government’s response to the bird flu, according to Reuters. Epidemia of avian flu has caused a row, while cases of cows and humans have aroused concerns among public health officials.

Cups also occur while the United States is fighting against one of the worst measles epidemics in a decade.

In an article on X, former president Nancy Pelosi, who is still one of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives, said that the administration’s plans “would directly harm our most vulnerable communities and make America more sick”.

“I will work with my colleagues at the Congress to fight against these short-sighted and irresponsible cuts,” she said.

As part of Kennedy’s wider restructuring, HHS also consolidates its 28 agency divisions in 15 news, including a new administration for a healthy America, to help make the Make America Healthy program in Kennedy.

By announcing the changes, Kennedy, said that HHS was “ineffective as a whole” and that the cuts would remove “bureaucratic sprawl”.

In a statement, HHS said reductions will allow taxpayers to save taxpayers estimated at $ 1.8 billion per year.

HHS has also reduced public health financing. Last month, the administration announced that it withdrawn $ 11 billion in funding from the COVID-19 era that local health and health services used other purposes, including mental health and drug addiction as well as infectious epidemics such as measles and bird flu.

Washington, DC and 23 States continued the US government on Tuesday for reducing funding.

The Republican Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, and the independence of Bernie Sanders, Vermont, who heads the Senatorial Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions asked Kennedy to testify during an audience of April 10 to explain his “proposed reorganization” of HHS.