Layoffs start at CDC, targeting probationary staff

From: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5297913/cdc-layoffs-hhs-trump-doge
By Will Stone and Pien Huang


The Trump administration is slashing about 1,300 employees, or 10%, of the workforce at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to two agency employees who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak for the agency. Staff were notified Friday of the cuts.

The layoffs are targeted at probationary employees — a broad category that includes recent hires and long-time staffers who were recently moved to a new position in the CDC.

"This is absolutely tragic," said one current CDC employee. "If we lose these people we lose important capacity and in a very real sense we lose our CDC future."

Another current CDC staffer told NPR the cuts were coming at the direction of the Department of Health and Human Services — now under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed as secretary on Thursday.

In response to a request for comment on the cuts, Andrew Nixon, director of communications at HHS, wrote in an email to NPR: "HHS is following the Administration's guidance and taking action to support the President's broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government. This is to ensure that HHS better serves the American people at the highest and most efficient standard."

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says these cuts "are very destructive to the core infrastructure of public health."

"This happens when you do indiscriminate, poorly thought-out layoffs," he says.

The cuts also hit the Epidemic Intelligence Service officer corps, where all those in the first year of their service were laid off, one of the CDC employees said. Members of the service, whom the CDC calls "disease detectives," are often dispatched to investigate disease outbreaks and public health threats in the U.S. and overseas.

Friday's layoffs are the latest in a series that started this week at CDC. Earlier this week, contractors in various divisions of the agency were let go, and around 400 employees accepted the "Fork in the Road" offer, according to a former CDC staffer with knowledge of the situation.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

"This is absolutely tragic," said one current CDC employee. "If we lose these people we lose important capacity and in a very real sense we lose our CDC future."

Watching the impotent shrieking of these technocrat parasites has been the most cathartic experience of my entire life and we're only just starting.

 

[Otterly]

The cuts also hit the Epidemic Intelligence Service officer corps, where all those in the first year of their service were laid off, one of the CDC employees said. Members of the service, whom the CDC calls "disease detectives," are often dispatched to investigate disease outbreaks and public health threats in the U.S. and overseas.

See I’m conflicted on this. These guys have a really fascinating history, and theyve been, in the past, instrumental in stopping some nasty stuff. They’re the guys you’d send to the remote bit of rainforest where you have reports that people are bleeding out through their eyeballs and no one knows what it is, and they’d go and discover a new virus, figure out it was dime rare species of rodent that had invaded the village that was the vector and help the locals stop transmission. Some genuinely heroic stuff has been done by them (may I once again recommend Laurie Garret’s ‘the coming plague’ if you like this kind of thing ? )
I will also bet you that they’ve been used as a front more recently for the same kind of shit that USAID has been doing.
So it’s another service that need a careful filleting, and restocking with genuine, honest and competent people who care about human health and are capable of detective work and hardship.

 

[TowinKarz]

Having experienced past CDC?

I'm just fine without future CDC.

 

[GunCar Gary]

So it’s another service that need a careful filleting, and restocking with genuine, honest and competent people who care about human health and are capable of detective work and hardship.

unfortunately it is the corruption in the government itself that has forced the use of what's essentially a shotgun to prune the tree of liberty

after the atrocities of covid (((they))) had their chance to make amends and instead of learning from their mistakes they forced Kamala Harris on us

 

[Super-Chevy454]

unfortunately it is the corruption in the government itself that has forced the use of what's essentially a shotgun to prune the tree of liberty

after the atrocities of covid (((they))) had their chance to make amends and instead of learning from their mistakes they forced Kamala Harris on us

So that means they get what they fuckin' desserve as the Joker might said?

 

[SlaanyChaser]

Come on bird flu now is your chance

 

[Strix454]

After the layoffs, the CDC would have about 10,700 employees. The CDC had about 10,600 employees in 2020. About all these "massive" cuts do is return to the status quo before Biden. The CDC had 8,325 employees in 2007.
Its just the usual meaningless crying over nothing.

 

[FierceBrosnan]

"This is absolutely tragic," said one current CDC employee. "If we lose these people we lose important capacity and in a very real sense we lose our CDC future."

Translation: My fake job is in jeopardy and I have no actual talents or skills and will be fucked in the private sector.

 

[Irrational Exuberance]

unfortunately it is the corruption in the government itself that has forced the use of what's essentially a shotgun to prune the tree of liberty

I'd use a chainsaw analogy, myself--although if we're talking about the Tree of Liberty in that respect, then it would be simple enough to set aside a cutting of the healthy branch before going after the rest, and then re-grafting it.

 

[GunCar Gary]

I'd use a chainsaw analogy, myself--although if we're talking about the Tree of Liberty in that respect, then it would be simple enough to set aside a cutting of the healthy branch before going after the rest, and then re-grafting it.

admittedly it's this video clip that makes me think of a shotgun whenever i think of destructive gardening

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Come on bird flu now is your chance

Looks like bird flu have decided to give a middle finger to the CDC.

 

[Unpaid Emotional Labourer]

See I’m conflicted on this. These guys have a really fascinating history, and theyve been, in the past, instrumental in stopping some nasty stuff.

I’m not entirely sure some people won’t be rehired. First, it isn’t like the greater % of folks getting laid off are going to find other jobs in their field and thus won’t be available. Second, a great way to clean house is to do this, and THEN with the trusted useful staff that remains, deep dive to identify activities leadership might want to consider restoring. If they can be proven to support the mission - the mission this administration is pursuing - then you can rehire people who are now much humbler and less troublesome, making sure the extremists are not among those, and those rehires will know they need to return to behaving themselves appropriately in the workplace.

This kind of stress tests thing. If we remove these columns, what happens? Does any part of the structure we want to retain suffer? If so, what is the minimum we can do to reinforce that?

 

[Otterly]

Translation: My fake job is in jeopardy and I have no actual talents or skills and will be fucked in the private sector.

Yeah. Anyone with actual medical, scientific experience will be able to find a job in the private sector no problem at all.

THEN with the trusted useful staff that remains, deep dive to identify activities leadership might want to consider restoring. If they can be proven to support the mission - the mission this administration is pursuing - then you can rehire people who are now much humbler and less troublesome, making sure the extremists are not among those, and those rehires will know they need to return to behaving themselves appropriately in the workplace.

I hope so. These agencies have a mission in paper that’s worthy, and if they can get back to that, they will be useful. I think the whole structure is so rotten that some drastic surgery is needed. I hope the administration are themselves humble enough to see where those useful parts are and reinstate then as needed.
What a time we live in. It’s quite exciting to see actual change rather than endless waffle.

 

[Shroom King]

Having experienced past CDC?

I'm just fine without future CDC.

Do I have to repost the open letter from 1200 doctors that said that protesting for George Floyd was somehow more important than following covid quarantines to prevent the spread of the super serious plague?

The CDC can be comprised of one person, me. This would be my national health strategy:

1) Don't fuck monkeys or other animals.
2) Don't fuck people who fuck monkeys or other animals.
3) Don't travel to countries where people do 1 and 2.
4) Don't inject heroin.
5) If you tolerate any of the aforementioned 4 groups in my country, you will be keel-hauled.

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

Do I have to repost the open letter from 1200 doctors that said that protesting for George Floyd was somehow more important than following covid quarantines to prevent the spread of the super serious plague?

The CDC can be comprised of one person, me. This would be my national health strategy:

1) Don't fuck monkeys or other animals.
2) Don't fuck people who fuck monkeys or other animals.
3) Don't travel to countries where people do 1 and 2.
4) Don't inject heroin.
5) If you tolerate any of the aforementioned 4 groups in my country, you will be keel-hauled.

I believe you should head the CDC.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

See I’m conflicted on this. These guys have a really fascinating history, and theyve been, in the past, instrumental in stopping some nasty stuff. They’re the guys you’d send to the remote bit of rainforest where you have reports that people are bleeding out through their eyeballs and no one knows what it is, and they’d go and discover a new virus, figure out it was dime rare species of rodent that had invaded the village that was the vector and help the locals stop transmission.

You are describing the opening scenes in 1995's Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman.

Too bad we no longer live in a 1995 world.